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CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Cornell University Library

BV 3265.B36

India and Christian opportunity /

3 1924 022 905 693

Cornell University
Library

The original of tliis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022905693

INDIA

AND

CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

INDIA

AND

CHRISTIAN OPPORTHNITY

BY

HARLAN P. BEACH, M.A., F. R. G.S.

NEW YORK

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT

FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS

190S

COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT
FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS

O

- - <^'^-^M 'u(^jf.tmJ3i.i

/

LI

PREFACE

The present volume is the twenty-seventh in a series
of text-books prepared primarily for the use of volun-
tary mission study classes in the institutions for higher
learning of the United States and Canada. This fact
will account for certain typographical peculiarities and
also for the material presented. A correspondence,
extending over eight years, with leaders of such classes
in more than six hundred institutions has determined
the selection of a larger proportion of general infor-
mation relating to the geography, ethnography, and
religions of India than appears in the ordinary volume
on that country. At the same time the facts that the
Empire is occupied by toward a hundred Protestant
missionary societies, representing various branches of
the Church, and that the students enrolled in the classes
also belong to some fifty denominations, have prevented
more than the merest allusion to the work of any given
society or Church. The reader must look elsewhere
for particulars concerning the activities of his own
society, if more information is desired than is found
in the Appendixes.

The author is under obligations to the literature re-
ferred to in the footnotes and in the brief bibliography
of Appendix A., as well as to the larger number of
volumes which he has made use of in a less direct way.

VI PREFACE

He desires, also, to express his warmest thanks to five
well-known Indian missionaries, who have kindly read
the manuscript or the proof, and whose criticisms have
done much to correct the individual equation. In order
to secure a wider corrective from the entire field, ex-
perienced workers from different sections were asked
to render this service. Thus Rev. C. A. R. Janvier was
born and has labored for many years in North India;
Mr. J. Campbell White has resided long in Calcutta;
Rev. J. H. Wyckoff, D.D., has labored for more than
two decades in South India; Rev. E. S. Hume, D.D.,
was born and has for nearly thirty years wrought in
Western India ; while Mr. G. S. Eddy, though latterly
laboring in South India, has been obliged by his offi-
cial duties to travel extensively throughout the Empire.
Any value that the volume may possess is largely due
to the pruning process through which the material has
thus passed. These gentlemen, however, should not be
held responsible for the literary form of the volume,
nor is it probable that they would desire to subscribe
to every statement which it contains. The author like-
wise desires to express his gratitude to the American,
Presbyterian and Methodist Boards for photographs
reproduced in the volume. As the joint product of a
number who earnestly desire the speedy evangelization
of so great an Empire, this little volume is commended
to the thoughtful reading and study of all who long
for the coming of the Kingdom of God in this land of
vast populations and no less colossal needs.

December, ipo^.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. The Physical Environment i

I. Names and their significance, 1,2. II. General view, 3-5,
III. India's four great regions, 6-12. IV. India's natural re-
sources, 12-15. V. Climatic features, 15-19.

II. Some Historical Factors 20

I. The Aboriginal background, 21-24. II. The Vedic Age,
24-33. Ill- The Epic Period, 34-41. IV. Period of territorial
and intellectual expansion, 41-48. V. Period of Buddhistic
ascendency, 48-55. VI. The Puranic period, 55-61. VII.
Period of Mohammedan /rule, 61-65. VIII. Continental
European contact, 65-69. JlX. The British in India, 69-74.

III. Races and the Common Life 75

I. Some facts based on the Census, 75-78. II. The races of
India, 78-84. III. Languages and literature, 84-87. IV. The
common life, 87-106. V. The Government of India, 106-108.

IV. The Religious Life of To-day 109

I. The Census of igoi, 109,110. II. India's minor faiths,
110-116. III. Mohammedanism, 116-121. IV. Hinduism,
121-145. V. Pilgrimages and holy men, 145,146.

V. Christianity in India 147

I. St. Thomas and Pantaenus, 147-150. II. Nestorians and
the Syrian Church, 150-153. III. Catholic missions in India,
153-159- IV. Early Dutch Protestant effort, 160, 161. V.
The Danish-Halle pioneers, 161-166. "'VI. The Anglo-Saxon
beginnings, 166-175. ^H- Indian Christianity of the last
century, i 76-181.

VI. ^YAYS OF Working 182

^I. Evangelizing/the masses, 182-189. II. Workrfor India's
women, 189-194. "^11. Educational work, 194-201. IV. Medi-
/cal missionary effort, 202-207. ^- Christian literature, 207-209,
"'VI, Work for the Native Church, 210-217,

VIU CONTENTS

-^VII. Problems and Opponents 218

I. Modern objection to Indian missions, 218-220. II. Caste
problems, 220-222. III. Problems connected with new con-
verts, 222-224. ^V". Embarrassments due to mass movements,
224-227. V. Economic problems, 227-229. VI. The question
of a self-supporting church, 229-233. VII. Securing self-govern-
ment, 233-235. VIII. Self -extension of the Native Church, 235.
IX. Educational problems, 236-238. X. Ferment of religious
ideas, 238-242. XI. The Government's attitude, 242, 243,
XII, The missionaries themselves, 244-248.

^Vni. Results and Opportunities 249

I. A glance at statistics, 249-255. II. Extra-statistical re-
sults of Indian missions, 256-265. III. Leavening the Empire,
265-269. IV. Conflicting testimonies, 269-276. V, Christian
opportunity in India, 275-284.

Appendix A 285

Annotated Bibliography.

Appendix B 295

Comparative Summary, 1851-1900.

Appendix C 296

PART I — Statistics of Protestant Missions in India —
Distribution.

PART II— Statistics of Protestant Missions in India. 299

Index . 301

ILLUSTRATIONS

. Frontispiece
Facing page i
I
72
72

lOI
lOI

Waiting to See the Golden God at Kumbhakonam —

"As Sheep not Having a Shepherd" .
Scenery in North India — Naini Tal .
Scene in South India — Irrigating Canal .
Mausoleum of Akbar the Great, near Agra
Cawnpore Memorial Well — Sepoy Mutiny .
Young Brahman and His Wife ....
Yogi, with Mark of His God on His Forehead

Sketch Map of India Between pages iio-iil

Great Mosque at Delhi Facing page 131

Tank and Temple Architecture — South India " " 131

Central Young Men's Christian Association

Building, Madras " "177

Young Women's Christian Association

Building, Bombay

Itinerating Tent and Outfit — Haidarabad
Street Preaching — Women's Work .
Zenana Workers — North India . . .
Bible Woman and Pupils — South India
The Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow
Forman Christian College, Lahore .
Bareilly Theological Seminary — Class of 1902
Bishop Thoburn Baptizing Converts
Statistics of Protestant Missions in India

" 177

" 184

" 184

" 193

" 193

" 201

" 201

2 "

" 22s

.

" 225

,j

" 298

Scenery in North India— N.iini Tal

Scene in Soutli India — Irrigating Canal

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

I. Names and Their Significance

I. Names. — Our word. India has suffered at the hands
of many transmitters.^ Starting from the name of the
river which so impressed the early immigrants from the
Northwest with its size that they called it Sindhus, from
the root meaning " to flow,'' the name given the ocean —
the modern Indus, — the initial letter became later an
aspirate, and hence in Persian it was written Hendu. The
Greeks dropped both sibilant and aspirate and called the
river, 'IvSos, the land along its banks 'IvSiktJ, and its
people 'IvSot. The Romans knew the country as India.
" The Persian term Hindustan, that is, ' Land of the
Hindus,' is merely another form of the old name of India.
. Others have identified India with the god Indra,
whose arm directs the course of the moon in the heavens,
implying that Hindustan is pre-eminently the ' Sub-lunar
World.' It also bears many poetic names, such as Sudar-
qana or 'Fair to look upon'; Bharata varcha [varsha], or
the fertile land ■' 'The Lotus Flower' ; Jambu dvipa [Jambu
dwipa], from the Eugenia Jamholana, a beautiful species
of myrtle, one of which plants is described in the Maha-
bharata as growing on a mountain of the Himalayas, ' holy,

'Yule and 'BurntM, Hobscm-Tohson, pp. 339, 330; Harper's Diction-
ary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, p. ^73.

' A more correct account of this name is that griven by Marshman
in the first volume of his History of India, who says that it is derived
from King Bbarat, one of the earliest and most renowned of its rulers.

2 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

everlasting, heaven-kissing, laden with fruits which fall
crushing to the earth when their juice falls in a broad
stream.' The expressions Arya varta, Arya bhumi, Arya
de^a, that is, ' Land, region, or domain of the Aryas,' given
to the country by the conquering race are properly appli-
cable only to the parts occupied by the Aryas."'

2. Content of the Term, India. — From the Book of
Esther and Herodotus down through the Dark Ages —
whose scholars divided the world into three parts,
"Europe, Africa and India" — even to 1492, when the great
Admiral erroneously supposed the aborigines of America
to be the natives of India, there was great uncertainty as
to the content of that term. The Old Testament writers
apparently regarded it as indicating what Herodotus thus
describes : " Eastward of India lies a tract which is en-
tirely sand. Indeed of all the inhabitants of Asia concern-
ing whom anything is known, the Indians dwell nearest
to the east and the rising of the sun."^ Ptolemy divided
the country into two parts, India within the Ganges and
India beyond the Ganges. Later came the distinctions of
Greater and Lesser India, and there was even a threefold
division which gave us the phrase, " the Indies." By an
extension of the term' it later included Arabia and Ethio-
pia, together with the mediaeval usage already noted. In
this volume the word indicates Asia's southern central
peninsula, with the adjacent country of Burma, the Anda-
man and Nicobar Islands, together with those small islets
southwest of India, and the more or less independent coun-
tries of Baluchistan, part of Afghanistan, and those north-
I ern dependencies lying between Tibet and India. Little will
be said, however, about those regions lying outside India
proper and Burma, since scarcely any, missionary work is
doing in those sections.

^ Reclus, Asia, vol. iii., p. 14.

* Yule and Burnell, Hohson-Jobson, p. 331.

■ Reclus, Asia, vol. iii., p. i.

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

II. General View

I. Place 'Among the Nations. — Nearly every consid-
eration likely to evoke and sustain interest is found in this
Empire. To the man desiring to see the extension of
commerce and the material development of races, it is
quite as attractive as it is to the student of Christian
civilization and missionary effort.

A Wonderful Antiquity. — Robed in the shadowy gar-
ments of an age antecedent to that in which our com-
mon Aryan family emigrated from the ancestral home,
this great land stands forth in the earliest historic times
an Oriental Minerva, having in her possession the rudi-
ments of art and science and the cruder gifts of war and
handicraft. Not only does ancient India exhibit a remark-
able civilization, but that remote time was the Golden Age
of her religious life. The Himalayas, whose highest peaks
far over-top Pelion and Ossa, piled upon Olympus itself,
are alive with deities, while in the fertile river plains
below the ministers of religion give utterance to those
iVedic hymns which to-day are redolent with the fragrance
of the world's morning.

Later Thought and Labor. — But not alone does primi-
tive India attract the men of our day. Through the cen-
turies from Solomon's time to the present this land has
ministered to the world through the products of its brain
and its brawn. This " Desire of the Nations " has
attracted slowly-moving caravans and tempest-tossed ships
from the West by its far-famed treasures. Old and cul-
tured China, with a religion that was mainly ethical and
devoid of future hope, sent imperial embassies and pious
pilgrims across mountain and sea to find in Gangetic
plains a religion pulsating with human life and brother-
hood, and boasting of a better light for the soul that
peers anxiously into hopeless eons of the future. The

4 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Arab of the Middle Ages, eager for new knowledge, slaked
his thirst at Indian springs and carried back to ignorant
Europe the cup of Eastern learning. When once the Cape
was rounded, all the Western nations took ship for India
and entered upon those centuries of intrigue, diplomatic
struggles, and open wars, which culminated in the no less
strenuous battles of a benevolent occupation by the
world's most wise and Christian colonizing power. To-
day Britain's fairest and most prized possession is India,
and to its shores the fleets of every nation resort for pur-
poses of trade, or to carry thither hosts of fascinated
travelers.

Center of Christian Interest. — And India is also a cen-
ter toward which the Christian Church looks with deepest
interest. Christians of every name turn toward this Em-
pire, — containing the largest number of missionaries de-
voted to the Christianization of any mission country, —
with earnest longings and supplications, and send thither
the no less necessary gifts of treasure and consecrated
young life.

2. General Features — Areas. — Were one in mid-air
to look down upon this continental mass which juts south-
ward into the Indian Ocean, buttressed on the east by its
Burman extension and on the west by the Afghan and
Baluchi frontier, his eye would scan a territory measuring
some 2,000 miles from north to south and about 2,500
miles in its largest dimension, — from Quetta in the north-
west to the southernmost point of Burma. This area of
1,559,603 square miles equals more than six-tenths of the
United States minus Alaska, and would more than cover
the region east of the Rocky Mountains. If its twenty-
nine degrees of latitude and thirty-four degrees of longi-
tude were placed on corresponding parallels and merid-
ians in America, its northern point would lie upon
the northernmost border of Tcxns ; Quetta in Baluchistan
would nearly coincide with the northwestern corner of

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT S

Mexico; Burma's easternmost city of any size, Bhamo,
would lie on the southern point of Florida ; and Comorin,
India's southernmost cape, would be in the Pacific, 2,000
miles west of Panama.

Scenery. — This extensive country, shaped like a lion's
head and neck with the face toward the West, contains
every variety of scenery. The French geographer, 6.
Reclus, thus pictures North India with his graphic pen-
cil : " In East India the physical features of nature are
in many respects presented in their grandest aspect. The
plains watered by the Indus and Ganges are encircled
northwards by the loftiest mountains on the globe, nor is
the contrast between their glittering snowy peaks and the
unbroken sea of verdure clothing their lower slopes else-
where developed on such a vast scale. North of the main
range the Tibetan plateaux present interminable solitudes,
destitute of water and vegetation except in the deeper
depressions, in which are gathered the mountain torrents,
and where shelter is afforded to men and plants. But
towards the south the land falls in successive terraces
down to rich and well-watered plains abounding in ani-
mal and vegetable life. Within the highlands themselves
extensive valleys are developed, like that of Kashmir,
which in the popular fancy have been converted into
earthly paradises inhabited by mankind during the Golden
Age. These delightful uplands are in truth almost unri-
valed for their healthy climate and fertile soil, their lovely
landscapes reflected in limpid lakes and running waters,
their amphitheaters of snowy ranges, and canopy of bright
azure skies."* In the river valleys and especially in the
Deccan, the scenery is widely different from that above
described. Save in the mountainous sections, one may
travel for hundreds of miles over regions as flat as a
Western prairie, while barrenness and death are the domi-
nant impressions except during the rains.

* ReckM, Asia, vol. iii., p. .a.

INDIA AND CHRISTIa )PP0RTUNITY

III. India's Four Great Regions

1. General Characterisation. — The late Sir William
Hunter thus characterizes the first three of these regions :
"The first, or the Himalayan, lies for the most part beyond
the British frontier, but a knowledge of it supplies the key
to the climatic and social conditions of India. The sec-
ond region, or the river plains in the North, formed the
theater of the ancient race movements which shaped the
civilization and political destinies of the whole Indian
peninsula. The third region, or the triangular table-land
in the South, has a character quite distinct from either of
the other two divisions, and a population which is now
working out a separate development of its own. Broadly
speaking, the Himalayas are peopled by Turanian tribes,
although to a large extent ruled by Aryan immigrants.
The great river plains of Bengal are still the possession
of the Indo-Aryan race. The triangular table-land has
formed an arena for a long struggle between the Aryan
civilization from the North, and what is known as the
Dravidian stock in the South.'"

2. The Deccan — Boundaries. — The Western traveler
on approaching India usually first sees the triangular
table-land known as the Deccan, " The South," which is
the home of about two-fifths of India's inhabitants. It is
hemmed in on every side by mountains, the Vindhyas on
the north having as their eastern and western redoubts
two of the sacred peaks of the Jains, the western one, Mt.
Abu, rising like an island out of the Rajputana plain and
abounding in temples of exquisite workmanship. These
vast masses of forests, ridges, and peaks were for cen-
turies a formidable barrier between dwellers in the North
and South, and this has always proved a main difficulty in
welding the two sections into a single whole. The East-

' Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 74.

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 7

ern and Western Ghats complete the triangle. Those fac-
ing the Bay of Bengal average only about half the height
of the Western Ghats, and in many places they recede in
detached spurs far back from the Indian Ocean. The
Western Ghats on the contrary are true to their name,
— " landing stairs," — as they closely skirt the coast from
which they rise abruptly, often in magnificent precipices
and headlands. " The physical geography and the politi-
cal destiny of the two sides of the Indian peninsula have
been determined by the characteristics of the mountain
ranges on either coast. On the east, the Madras country
is comparatively open, and was always accessible to the
spread of civilization. On the east, therefore, the ancient
dynasties of Southern India fixed their capitals. Along
the west, only a narrow strip of lowland intervenes be-
tween the barrier range and the Bombay seaboard. This
western tract long remained apart from the civilization of
the eastern coast. To our own day, one of its ruling races,
the Nairs, retains land tenures and social customs, such
as polyandry, which mark a much ruder stage of human
advancement than Hinduism, and which in other parts of
India only linger among isolated hill tribes.'"

The Deccan Interior. — The interior of the Deccan
plateau is checkered with mountains and hills. Here the
rich black soil has in many sections induced inhabitants to
drive back the jungle into the hilly recesses, and were it
not for the liability to drought, which is only partially pro-
vided against by the irrigation system. Southern India
would be far more densely populated than it now is. The
wooded stretches lend picturesqueness to the better watered
portions of the table-land, as witness the description of the
Mysore forest quoted by Bishop Hurst : " Trees of the
largest size stand thickly together over miles, their trunks
entwined with creepers of huge dimensions, their massive
arms decked with a thousand bright-blossoming orchids.

^ Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 70.

8 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Birds of rare plumage flit from bough to bough ; from the
thick woods, which abruptly terminate on verdant swards,
bison issue forth in the early morn and afternoon to
browse on the rich herbage, while large herds of elk pass
rapidly across the hill-sides; packs of wild dogs cross the
path, hunting in company, and the tiger is not far off, for
the warning boom of the great langiir monkey is heard
from the lofty trees. The view from the head of the
descent to the Falls of Gersoppa is one of the finest pieces
of scenery in the world.'"

3. River Plains. — The Indo-Gangetic Plain, some 1,500
miles in length from east to west, is the seat of India's
densest populations. It lies north of the Deccan, between
it and the Himalayan region. Except in the central-west-
ern section streams are as characteristic of the plain
region as their absence is of the most of the Deccan. The
Indian peasant is enamored of their beneficent presence
and exhibits his appreciation by such names as " Streak
of Gold," "Glancing Waters," "Sinless One," "Forest
Hope," and " Lord of Strength." So fertile and well-
watered are the plains that two or three harvests are
gathered each year in the more favored sections.

Scenery. — The scenery in the Gangetic region of India
can be imagined from this unduly colored quotation :
" Along the upper and middle courses of the Bengal rivers,
the country rises gently from their banks in fertile undu-
lations, dotted with mud villages and adorned with noble
trees. Mango groves scent the air with their blossom in
spring, and yield their abundant fruit in summer. The
spreading banyan, with its colonnades of hanging roots-
the stately pipal, with its green masses of foliage; the
wild cotton tree, glowing while still leafless viath heavy
crimson flowers; the tall, daintily-shaped, feathery-leafed
tamarind, and the quick-growing babul rear their heads
above the crop fields. As the rivers approach the coast,

" Hurst, Indika, p. 303.

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 9

the palm trees take possession of the scene. The ordi-
nary landscape in the delta is a flat stretch of rice-fields,
fringed around with an evergreen border of bamboos,
cocoanuts, date trees, areca, and other coronetted palms.
This densely-peopled tract seems at first sight bare of
villages, for each hamlet is hidden avsray amid its own
grove of plantains and wealth-giving trees.'" The above
description is antipodal, of course, to what might be said
of the arid regions of the West, especially the Desert of
Thar where, however, scarcely any missionary work is
done.

Resulting Advantages. — The result of such a physical
endowment upon the Indo-Gangetic Plain has been most
striking. " The northern basin, generally level and fertil-
ized by numerous navigable waters, naturally became the
center of culture for all the surrounding nations. These
productive plains were soon occupied by numerous agricul-
tural settlements; here were founded many flourishing
trade marts; here the industries were very rapidly de-
veloped ; here civilization achieved some of its greatest tri-
umphs. But here also successive invasions led to the most
violent conflicts, and brought about a constant intermin-
gling of races. Forming a vast basin, surrounded on all
sides by more elevated lands, the Indo-Gangetic plain, like
that of Northern Italy, was necessarily exposed from the
first to the inroads of all the neighboring peoples. On the
west the Afghans, and even invaders from beyond the Hin-
du Kush, found broad openings in the encircling ranges
leading down to those rich plains and magnificent cities,
which ever over-flowed with treasures during each short
interval of peace. On the north the warlike highland
populations were separated only by a narrow marshy zone
from the cultivators of the plains. On the east, also, the
wild tribes of the hills, through which the Brahmaputra
escapes seawards, beheld an inviting and easily accessible

> Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 6s, 66.

lO INDIA^AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUJ^ITV

field of plunder spread out before them. For ages the
inroads were incessantly renewed, now from one point,
now from another, while these hostile incursions at times
developed into vast migrations of whole races.

Plain vs. Deccan Population. — " Thus it was that
throughout the historic period the populations of the Indus
and Gangetic plains were, till recently, subject to constant
fluctuations. Hence the primeval races and languages are
now no longer found in these regions that have been so
frequently wasted by fire and sword; whereas the densely
wooded uplands and valleys of Southern India have pre-
served pure from foreign contact many communities which
still retain the same physique, speech, and habits of two
thousand or three thousand years ago. But as the hives
became too crowded, these communities necessarily
swarmed abroad, and their migrations, whether warlike or
peaceful, were naturally attracted to the fair cities of the
plains, whose glittering domes were visible."'

4. Himalayan Region. — The region lying to the north
of the Indo-Gangetic Plain is mountainous. Like a vast
scimitar with its cutting edge turned southward, the
Himalayas, the loftiest chain in the world, impend over
India. It is really a double range, the southern chain ris-
ing rapidly to a height of nearly six miles above the sea
and culminating in Mt. Everest, the highest peak yet meas-
ured. Its northern slope descends to an elevation of some
13,000 feet and then rises again in a second line of peaks.
These mountain masses present one of the most sublime
panoramas in the world. " Above the enormous base of
the green or rocky Alps rise other heights, which are
always white, except when gilded by the sun or darkened
by the falling shadows, and towering above these masses
of snow-clad pyramids appear the inaccessible topmost
summits, whence, should they ever be ascended, a pros-
pect will be commanded of the Tibetan plateaux, of the

■ ' Rectus, Asia, vol. iii., p. 24.

THE. iPILYSICAL'; ENVIRONMENT 1 1

plains of . India; of the t valleys watered by the Tsanho
[Tsan-pu], Ganges and Jamna [Jumna].'"

Value to India. — The part which this region has played
in India's history is two-fold. For ages the Himalayas
have proven an insurmountable wall of defence from
northern enemies. They have also acted as a colossal
condenser to turn back to the plains the fertilizing mois-
ture hurled against their fugged sides by moisture-bear-
ing monsoons. The southern slopes of the Himalayas re-
ceive the highest measured rainfalls in the world, while
the inner ranges on the north store up snow, thus provid-
ing a water supply for the rainless season.

5. Burma — Lower. — Burma constitutes the eastern-
most and largest province of the Indian Empire. Its
southern section is the most populous. In Arakan the
mountains, " clothed to their summits with the rich forest
vegetation, rise in a succession of parallel ridges from the
plains to a height of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet. The plains
themselves are of small extent, being mostly either lim-
ited by the offshoots of the lower coast ranges, or else
hemmed in by wooded tracts, which on the coast consist
exclusively of mango trees. The lowlands are indented by
countless streams from the hills, while the spring-tides
flood extensive low-lying districts, forming a labyrinth of
channels and back waters. These water courses take the
place of highways, serving as a means of rapid intercourse
between the towns and villages."^ In Pegu further south,
the land is low, sandy or muddy, and during the rainy sea-
son is exposed to destructive floods. It is, however, well
adapted to the cultivation of rice, which is here produced
in great abundance. Tenasserim, Burma's southermost
tongue of land, is fringed along its entire length by a vast
number of islands, which are hilly and often densely
wooded with valuable trees.

1 Reclus, Asia, vol. iii., p. 28.

'Stanford's Compendium of Geography, Asia, vol. ii., pp. 232, 233.

12 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Upper Burma. — This was annexed to the Indian Em-
pire as recently as 1886. It is in the main an upland ter-
ritory covered for the most part with forests of useful and
ornamental trees, the best of which is the teak. Some of
these have a girth of twenty-five feet and rise 120 feet.
" Orchids, ferns, and mosses of great beauty are found in
abundance. Ground flowers are comparatively few; but
a Burma forest, and particularly in the month of March,
is quite bright with the many colors and sweet with the
varying scents of thousands of flowering trees, flowering
creepers, flowering shrubs and orchids." Cleared portions
of the upland and hill regions are connected by tracks
where the jungle has been cut away. These so-called
roads are pulverized into dust by the slab wheels of bul-
lock carts in the dry season, or are churned into a quag-
mire by animals after the rain has come. The tea plant,
wheat, maize, and cotton thrive here as rice does on the
plains.

IV. India's Natural Resources

I. Agricultural and Horticultural Wealth. — The agri-
cultural resources of the Empire are by far the most im-
portant source of wealth. Those crops which in 1899-1900
— a year of famine, it should be remembered — occu-
pied the largest acreage were as follows, expressed in the
nearest million of acres planted: Rice, seventy-three;
wheat, sixteen; other food grains, seventy-six; oil seeds,
ten ; cotton, eight ; sugar cane, three ; indigo, one. Tea cul-
ture is a comparatively new occupation; but, like tobacco,
it proves very profitable to those capitalists engaged in it.
Though the introduction from Peru of the quinine-yield-
ing cinchona as yet renders small financial returns, it is a
boon to myriads of fever-smitten natives. Ordinary
Occidental vegetables are widely grown, and many tropical
fruits ?dd to th? delights of the foreigner's table,

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT I3

2. Forests. — The forests of India are under the care
of the Government and are being conserved and extended.
The aristocracy of the Indian forests, with the teak as
king, includes the sal, the deodar, and the oak and chestnut
of temperate climes. The more precious sandalwood is
limited to portions of the Deccan. The great enemy of
timber is nomadic cultivation. A tribe burns down a patch
of forest, and with little or no culture the soil is planted
with the seeds. Heat and rains and a thick bed of ashes
cause it to yield large crops with the minimum of labor.
In two or three years the people move on to a new spot,
leaving the denuded forests to quick jungle growths.
Where the mountain slopes are thus cleared the rains
sweep away the soil, leaving the mountain side nearly
barren.

3. Minerals, Metals, Gems. — The mineral resources of
India are far less valuable than its agricultural wealth.
Though the Malabar Coast is by many identified with
King Solomon's Ophir, the precious metals are present in
very limited quantities. Iron and copper are fairly
abundant and a very ashy coal is mined in sufficient quan-
tities to supply the railways. Despite Golconda's fame
in literature, diamonds are found in the central regions in
very small quantities, though in the sixteenth century Gol-
condan lapidaries were famed because of their skill in
cutting and polishing diamonds. The jade and ruby mines
of Burma are a more considerable source of wealth. On
the Madura Coast, and in the Gulf of Cambay, there are
pearl fisheries of inferior importance.

4. Fauna. — The fauna of India is an asset of mingled
value and loss. The domestic animals of the Occident are
all here, though sometimes in different varieties. Oxen
and buffaloes do most of the heavy work of agriculture.
Milk and butter are largely used. Elephants, with the ex-
ception of those in Burma, are rarely employed, save for
military and hunting purposes. Where fish are abundant,

14 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

they constitute a large part of the dietary of thJ poorer
classes.

Animal Pests. — Lions, tigers, — including the dreaded
man-eaters, specimens of which have been known to de-
vour eighty persons annually, — leopards, wolves, bears,
the rhinoceros, and bison, and venomous snakes, are the
delight of the hunter, or the bane of the multitude. India
is a paradise of insects, which are omnipresent and ex-
tremely active, owing to the tropical heat and abundant
rains in certain sections. Some of them are great pests,
especially the innumerable mosquitoes and ants of most
destructive habits, while others are very showy, having
large wings of surpassing brilliancy.

5. Rivers a Resource. — The Indus and its feeder, the
Sutlej, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Irawadi are
a natural resource of another sort. Flowing from peren-
nial springs through broad valleys, they have for ages
been the great carriers and travel routes of the North. To-
day railways have taken away most of the passenger traf-
fic, but, except on the Irawadi, they are still important
agents in transportation. Another invaluable function
which they will always perform is that of furnishing the
water for ever extending irrigation schemes. In the case
of one of them, the holy " Mother Ganga," a resource far
more valuable than guano beds is found in the vast amount
of fertilizing mud which by its overflows is carried far and
wide over large sections of Bengal. Some 355,000,000 tons
of silt are thus brought down annually, — an amount five
times as large as that deposited by the Mississippi, — and
thus each year its delta is being extended southward, as
well as increased in elevation above the sea. The work
thus done during the rainy season by the Ganges " may be
realized if we suppose that a daily succession of fleets,
each of 2,000 great ships, sailed down the river during the
four months, and that each ship of the daily 2,000 vessels
deposited a freight of 1,400 tons of mud every morning

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 1 5

into the estuary."' Deccan rivers are of little importance
for transportation and fertilizing purposes. Even the
Narbada and Godavari are not extensively navigable,
owing to their obstruction by rapids.

V. Climatic Features

1. Temperature. — The temperature of India varies
greatly, mainly because of the wide diversity in altitude,
and in distance from the sea. " Along the coasts it is high
but equable throughout the year, and the air is charged with
moisture. Inland, the plateaux show a wider annual range,
and are dry and hot during one part of the year, dry and
cold during another, with a comparatively short interval of
warm wet weather. Except along the coasts, therefore,
the mean annual temperature is a meteorological figure of
little significance in the life of the people, and the ex-
treme range between the mean of the warmest and of the
coldest month is a factor of importance. This range, in
upper Sindh is as great as 30° F. in the year; in the
Panjab, 27^, and in the Dekkan, 25° ; whilst in Calcutta it
is but 16°, falling along the west coast to 12°.'"

2. Rainfall. — In most of India rain depends upon the
monsoons, especially that of the summer blowing from the
southwest. The annual precipitation varies between the
two extremes of a " record " fall of 1861 in Assam amount-
ing to sixty-seven feet, one inch, and four and one-third
inches at one of the Sind stations. In general rain is most
abundant on the seaward slopes of the Western Ghats and
in Burma and in Assam. Northwestern India is the dry-
est portion, and one-third of the Deccan is also very inad-
equately supplied with moisture.

Bursting of the Monsoon. — So important are these
winds to the life of the people that the bursting of the

'■ Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 60.

? Mill, International Geography, p. 474,

1 6 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

monsoon has been the theme of a multitude of native poets
from the Vedic Rishis to modern poetasters. A European
savant's account of the coming of the rains is not less
poetical than it is accurate. " The spectacle presented at
its first approach may be easily contemplated from Math-
eran, near Bombay, from Mahabaleshwar, or any of the
other headlands of the Western Ghats, which command at
once a view of the sea, the coast, and the mountain gorges.
The first storm-clouds, forerunners of the tempest, usually
gather between the sixth and eighteenth of June, accord-
ing to the year. On one side of the horizon the coppery
vapors are piled up like towers, or, according to the local
expression, are massed together ' like elephants in battle ' ;
and as they move slowly towards the land, one-half of the
firmament becomes densely overcast, while not a speck
sullies the deep azure in the opposite direction. On the
one hand, mountains and valleys are wrapped in darkness ;
on the other, the outline of the seaboard stands out wath
intense sharpness, the surface of sea and rivers assumes
the metallic hue of steel, the whole land, with its scattered
towns, glitters with a weird glare. As the clouds strike
the crags of the Western Ghats, the thunder begins to
rumble, the whirlwind bursts over the land, the lightnings
flash incessantly, the peals grow more frequent and pro-
longed, the rain is discharged in tremendous downpours.
Then the black clouds are suddenly rent asunder, the light
of day gradually returns, all nature is again bathed in the
rays of the setting sun, and of all the banked up masses
nothing remains except some fleecy vapor ascending the
valleys or drifting over the tree-tops. Such is usually the
first outburst of the monsoon, after which follow the reg-
ular rains. But the watery mists will at times present
themselves unescorted by the majesty of thunder and light-
ning, and then a midnight darkness unexpectedly over-
spreads the horizon, and the whole land is deluged by tor-
rential rains. At times also the dense masses drift slowly

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT \'J

along the mantling headlands for hours together, like fleets
of war-ships sailing by a line of strongholds, each cloud in
its turn discharging its electric shocks as it doubles the
capes. The heavens seem then to be at war with the
frowning cliffs of the seaboard.'"

3. Seasons. — The distinctions between the cool, hot,
and rainy seasons are well marked and are practically om-
nipresent. The cool months extend from November to
the middle of February. The rainy season falls in mid-
summer, ending ordinarily in September. These rains are
preceded by dry, hot weather and are accompanied and fol-
lowed by a trying, moist heat. Winter is the pleasantest
portion of the year; spring includes the hot and healthy
months; summer weather depends on the duration of the
rains ; and the fall is close and unhealthy, usually because
of malaria.

The Six Seasons. — The six seasons or " youths " of the
old Aryan myths are still popularly spoken of in the river
plains. According to these myths, " the vasanta, or spring,
is the season of love and pleasure, as sung by the poets.
The air is now serene, the sky limpid, while the southern
zephyr murmurs softly in the foliage, wafting to the rural
hamlet the intoxicating fragrance of the mango blossom.
Field operations are now over, and the time has come for
marriage and feasts in honor of the gods. But this is pres-
ently followed by the grishma, or ' season of sweats,' with
its dust-clouds rising above the roads and fields, its fre-
quent fires amidst the dense jungle and crackling bamboos.
These are the burning months of May and June, when the
air is ominously still. But the fierce tornado is already
preparing, the clouds are banking up, the thunderstorm
bursts forth, heralding the monsoon, which begins with
the varsha, or ' rainy season.' Now the fields are watered
by swollen streams, nature is renewed, the seed sprouts in
the tilled land. These two months of July and August are
' Reclus, Afia, v?'' !"•> PP' 50-52.

1 8 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

followed by the sharad, or autumn season of September
and October, which ripens the fruits with its heats, still
humid from the recent rains. Then comes the himanta, or
winter, answering to the two last months of the European
year, when the mornings and evenings are chill, but the
days bright, allowing the husbandman to reap and harvest
his crops. Lastly, the sasi, or sisira, — that is the period of
fogs and night dews — ends with the month of February,
after which the cycle of the seasons begins again.'"

4. Climatic Scourges — Cyclones. — Climatic aberra-
tions grievously affect the Indian Empire as witness the
awful ravages due to natural causes which often decimate
exposed sections. Cyclones of a severity scarcely equaled
in the West Indies or Mascarene Islands occur somewhat
frequently. Their coming is unexpected, and in a few
hours appalling ruin marks the place where prosperity
reigned. The most destructive cyclones are experienced
around the head of the Bay of Bengal. The worst of these
terrific visitations in history was the Baker-ganj cyclone
of 1876, which drove huge waves over large islands and
in a few hours engulfed 150,000 acres of land, sweeping
into eternity more than 2,000,000 souls. Cholera followed
in its wake caused by the putrefaction of unburied corpses,
thus still further decimating the district.

'Drought. — Even more destructive to human life are the
droughts which occasionally visit the dryer parts of India,
especially in Sind, the Punjab portions of the Gangetic
Plain, and large sections of the Deccan, and other parts of
the Empire where the mean annual rainfall is from forty
to sixty inches. This lack of rain is increasingly provided
against by the extension of the government system of
rivers and irrigating canals. The extent of this system
may be judged from a single example, that of the Sirhind
Canal in the Punjab, the main arteries of which are 542
miles in length, the tributaries aggregating 4,462 miles.
^ Reclus, Asia, vol. iii., pp. 49, 50.

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT IQ

Famines. — As a natural concomitant of extreme
drought, though the product of other factors as well,
deadly famines occur at intervals of a few years. That of
1878, which lasted twelve months in the Northwestern
Provinces and twenty-two months in Madras, directly af-
fected a population of more than 58,000,000, with a conse-
quent reduction through deaths and a diminished birth
rate of about 7,000,000. The awful famine of 1900, so
fresh in our memories, severely affected 52,000,000 people
and resulted directly and indirectly in the death of toward
a million persons, a large majority of whom were children.

Famine Accompaniments. — Cholera is often an accom-
paniment of famines, as are fevers of various sorts, so
that the by-products are calamities of considerable mo-
ment. The bubonic plague which, during the years 1896
to 1900, caused the death of nearly 360,000 persons in In-
dia is produced, according to the Bombay Plague Research
Committee, by causes leading to a lower state of vitality, of
which insufficient food is probably the most important.
One can readily understand, therefore, how anxious the
people are about the coming of abundant rains.

II

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS

Character of Indian History. — History cannot be pred-
icated of ancient India in the same sense that it is of those
contemporary river-valley nations of the Nile, the
Euphrates, and the Huang Ho ; yet the early civilization of
the Indus and its tributaries is no less certain a fact, and
it is even more interesting, especially to the student of re-
ligion. Professor Cowell thus characterizes India's his-
tory : " The very word history has no corresponding In-
dian expression. In the vernaculars derived from the
Sanskrit we use the term itihas. But how immeasurably
different the Sanskrit itihasa, and the Greek IfrropLa ! The
one implies personal research and inquiry — its best com-
ment indeed is Herodotus' own life of travel from land to
land; the other is a curious compound of three words, iti,
ha, asa, which almost correspond in meaning to our old nur-
sery phrase, ' There was once upon a time.' . . . The idlest
legend has passed current as readily as the most authentic
fact, — nay, more readily, because it is more likely to
charm the imagination ; and, in this phase of mind, imagi-
nation and feeling supply the only proof which is needed
to win the belief of the audience. Hence the whole his-
tory of ancient India is a blank. We know nothing of the
actual events which transpired — the revolutions which
changed the aspect of society, such as the growth of the
caste system, the rise of Buddhism, the first great protest
against caste, its temporary triumph, or its final over-
throw — unless it be in a few fragments and allusions

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 21

which dropped unconsciously from the Brahmanical
writers, and which modern scholarship has toilsomely
pieced together, like broken sentences in a palimpsest. In
the same way India has properly no literary history; her
greatest authors are only names.'" Notwithstanding the
uncertainty thus clearly stated, there is pretty general
agreement as to the order of certain outstanding events,
though the dates in the present chapter are only given as
approximate and in order to indicate prevalent opinion.
In this respect Indian history is like geological strata, the
order of which is pretty evident, though the chronology is
not determinable.

I. The Aboriginal Background

1. Earliest Inhabitants. — In the dimmest dawn of In-
dian history, no one knows how long ago, though Max-
Miiller suggests 4,000 years or more, we find existing in
the northwestern part of the peninsula a primitive race.
" Who the first inhabitants of India were we know not.
In primeval days, wild, savage people inhabited the land,
wandering to and fro along the riversides in search of
food. The only records they have left of their existence
are the chipped flint or quartzite arrow-heads, scrapers,
and axes, dug up to-day in the alluvial deposits of the great
river valleys. By degrees these aboriginal inhabitants be-
came more civilized. They learned to smooth and polish
their rude stone implements, perforating them with holes
so as to attach them to handles. As time went on they
made gold and silver ornaments and manufactured earthen
pots, which are still discovered in the strange tombs, con-
structed of upright stone slabs, wherein they buried their
dead.

2. Their Modern Representatives. — " From their
homes in the river valleys, lowlands, and open country,

1 Cowell, Inaugural Lecture, pp. 10, 11.

22 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

these primeval people of India were gradually driven by
other invading races to the lofty mountain ranges, where,
amid the dense forests, their descendants still live undis-
turbed, retaining all their primitive simplicity, supersti-
tions, beliefs, and habits. During the taking of the Census
of 1872 it was ascertained that one-twelfth of the popula-
tion of India, nearly twenty millions of human beings, con-
sisted of these living fossils of primeval times. [Later
censuses do not clearly distinguish aboriginal elements.]
There they remain, a strange study to the historian and
anthropologist; worshipers of spirits, ghosts and demons;
worshipers of snakes, trees, mountains, streams, and
aught that inspires wonder, fear, or terror; but little af-
fected by the efforts of their British rulers to inculcate the
most primary elements of civilization, except in so far as
their grosser habits of human sacrifice, infanticide, and in-
tertribal war and bloodshed have been sternly suppressed.'"
3. Conjectural Origin. — Conjecture has busied itself
with these extremely interesting people. They, or at least
the Dravidians, are supposed by some to be the surviving
remnant of a great race originally inhabiting a wide con-
tinent, now submerged, which stretched from Africa and
Madagascar to Melanesia in the South Pacific. Indeed,
" Bishop Caldwell points out that aboriginal tribes in
Southern and Western Australia use almost the same
words for I, thou, he, we, you, etc., as the Dravidian fisher-
men on the Madras coast, and resemble in other ways the
Madras hill tribes, as in the use of their national weapon,
the boomerang.'" Others regard the Dravidians as having
come from beyond the Himalayas. Dim memories of the
lofty mountain home prevail among other tribes, like those
expressed in the name of the Santal race-god, " the Great
Mountain," and in the Gond traditions which assert that
they were created at the foot of a Himalayan peak. A

^ Frazer, British India, pp. 49, 50.
* Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 105.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 23

touching illustration of the strength of this tradition sur-
vived until recently in their custom of burying the dead
with the feet turned Himalaya-ward, so as to be ready to
return at last to their lofty mountain home.

The languages suggest foreign origins of the non-Aryan
races. These enduring witnesses of antiquity would seem
to indicate three great sources of emigration. Thus the
Tiheto-Burman races, which now cling closely to the Him-
alayas, especially their northeastern offshoots, may have
entered India from their early Mongolian home by way of
the northeastern passes. The Kolarian stock, now chiefly
dwelling in the North and along the northeastern edge of
the Deccan table-land, probably entered India by the same
gateway as opened to the Tibeto-Burmans. The third and
predominant stock, the Dravidians, who now occupy the
southern part of the Deccan, probably entered India by the
northwestern passes, if affinities with Finnish, Baluchi,
and Ugrian languages are not misleading.

4. Aboriginal Religion. — Though the early Aryan tra-
ditions and literature speak contemptuously of the aborig-
ines and regard them as abject heathen, using the epithets,
" lawless," " disturbers of sacrifice," " without gods and
without rights," they were nevertheless possessed of
some religious instincts. " The Kols worshipped the local
spirits that dwelt in the trees of the forest, and ghosts.
The Dravidians worshipped the productive earth herself,
under the symbol of the snake, and the linga, or rude stone
emblem of male reproduction. They did not, however, en-
tirely neglect the local spirits of the forest whom the Kols
revered. The tree, with the deity who dwelt in it, was
united with their adoration of the snake. The Dravidians
were the famous tree and serpent worshipers of Ancient
India."' These lower forms of worship, persisting from
antiquity to the present among the non-Aryans, have
doubtless had much to do with the degradation of the

"Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 107, 108.

24 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

early and purer forms of Vedic religion. They certainly
constitute a considerable portion of the popular Hinduism
of to-day.

II. The Vedic Age, 2000-1400 b. c.

1. The Date of First Invasion. — At the dawn of more
authentic Indian history, only a few years before the ac-
cepted date of the crossing of the Euphrates by Abram,
the " immigrant/' we see a host of Aryan nomads descend-
ing by the northwestern passes of India and crossing the
sea-like river Indus, whence they were destined to spread
over the fertile northern plains and become par excellence,
the Hindus, India's predominating race.

2. Original Aryan Home. — Whence they came cannot
be definitely stated. Max-Miiller would have us believe
that the Aryan hearthstone was somewhere in Asia ; Dr.
Schrader strongly argues for European Russia, and so
does Huxley in a modified form; while Herr Penka be-
lieves that it was somewhere in Scandinavia. Be the exact
locality of the ancestral home where it may, it is interest-
ing to know that this same momentous migration carried
our remote ancestors ultimately into Germany and Britain ;
while their brethren, the Greeks and Romans, sought in
Southern Europe the seat of future empires, and their
no less Aryan — "noble" — brothers journeyed to the
land of endless summer, lying south of the Himalayas.

Family Heirlooms. — Reminiscences of the common
Aryan family life survive in our every-day words father,
mother, brother, sister; while daughter reminds the scat-
tered branches of the great family of the time when she
was the " milkmaid " of the Aryan household. Names of
domestic animals, the terminology of animal life and of the
household economy, and a host of other words are also
echoes of our brotherhood that reverberate from the
Ganges westward to the Golden Gate. Max-Miiller calls

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 2$

attention to the fact " that most of the terms connected
with the chase and warfare differ in each of the Aryan
dialects, while words connected with the more peaceful
occupations belong generally to the common heirloom of
the Aryan language. ... It will show that all the Aryan
nations had led a long life of peace before they separated,
and that their language acquired individuality and na-
tionality as each colony started in search of new homes.'"

3. The Aryan Invasion. — The Aryans from their en-
trance into India appeared in the character of warriors en-
deavoring to wrest the Punjab from the original inhabi-
tants, Romesh C. Dutt, a distinguished writer from whom
we shall often quote, writes of this struggle : " The story
of the extermination of barbarians by civilized races is
much the same in ancient and in modern times ; and the
banks of the Indus and its tributaries were cleared of their
aborigines 1,800 years before Christ, much in the same
way in which the banks of the great Mississippi have been
cleared 1,800 years after Christ of the many brave and
warlike Indian tribes, who lived and ruled and hunted in
the primeval woods of America.'" Passages in the Rig
Veda graphically picture the running fight carried on be-
tween the colonists and the aborigines, the deadly ambush,
the awful Aryan reprisals, and the terror inspired in the
dark aborigines by the unfamiliar and terrible war-horse.
They also testify to internecine struggles, which more
than once rent Aryan society in twain. In all these con-
flicts the immigrants do not fight alone; the gods, notably
Indra and Varuna, are their powerful allies, and religion
furnishes the inspiration of carnage.

Relics of Ancient Hostility. — One effect of this con-
stant conflict with the aboriginal tribes was a sharp dif-
ferentiation between them and the Aryan conquerors
which still exists, to some extent, between the Hindus and

1 Chambers's Encyclopaedia, article Aryan Race and Languages.
' Dutt, Ancient India, p. 12.

26 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

the non-Aryan races. The two words by which the aborig-
ines were known define their subsequent relations with the
Aryans. They were Dasyus, signifying " enemies," and
Dasas, or " slaves," the latter appearing very commonly
to-day in the family names in the lowest classes in Bengal.
The new comers prided themselves on their fair com-
plexion as contrasted with the native " blackskins."

4. Daily Life — Employments. — The ordinary life of
the Aryan was prevailingly that of agriculturists. Thus
the oldest Georgic of the Aryan world begins: " i. We
will till this field with the Lord of the Field; may he
nourish our horses; may he bless us thereby. 2. O Lord
of the Field ! bestow on us sweet and pure and butter-like
and delicious and copious rain, even as cows give us milk.
May the Lords of Water bless us.""^ As in Homeric times,
the chief who tilled large fields and owned abundant herds
became warrior when necessity arose, returning again to
his home when the enemy was overcome. Society was not
yet divided into well-defined ranks, and caste was un-
known. Weaving, metal working, carpentry, and architec-
ture were also cultivated.

The Family and Woman. — The family was patriarchal
with the father at its head, sons and grandsons living un-
der the same roof. The bondage of the Hindu woman of
to-day was unknown. She was not secluded nor debarred
from her rightful place in society. " A girl generally se-
lected her own husband, but her parents' wishes were for
the most part respected. We have frequent allusions to
careful and industrious wives who superintend the ar-
rangements of the house, and, like the dawn, roused every
one in the morning and sent him to his work. Girls who
remained unmarried obtained a share in the paternal prop-
erty. Widows could re-marry after the death of their
husbands.

Marriage. — " The ceremony of marriage was an appro-

* Rig Veda^ iv., 57.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS Q.'J

priate one, and the promises which the bride and bride-
groom made were suitable to the occasion. The bride was
a new-comer into her husband's family, and she was re-
ceived with appropriate injunctions. The male servants,
the female servants, and the very cattle were of the fam-
ily, and the bride was asked to be kind and considerate and
good to them all. Free from anger and with a cheerful
mind, she must not only minister to her husband's happi-
ness, but be devoted to the gods worshiped in the family
and be kind to all its dependents. She must extend her
gentle influence over her husband's father and mother, she
must keep under due control his brothers and sisters, and
be the queen of the household. And thus she must remain,
united to her husband until old age, the virtual mistress of
a large and patriarchal family, and respected and honored
as Hindu women were honored in ancient times. . . .
Sons inherited the property of their father, and in the ab-
sence of sons, the daughter's son might be adopted.'"

5. Death. — Death was probably followed in the ear-
liest times by burial, though cremation soon came into
vogue. As we shall see, the bright gods had been most
worshiped in life. Hence death was not without its
visions of hope, as witness these verses from an Aryan
funeral chant : " O thou deceased ; proceed to the same
place where our forefathers have gone, by the same path
which they followed. The two kings Yama and Varuna
are pleased with the offerings ; go and meet them.

" Proceed to that happy heaven and mix with our fore-
fathers. Meet Yama, and reap the fruits of thy virtuous
deeds. Leave sin behind ; enter thy home.

"O ye shades ! leave this place, go away, move away.
For the forefathers have prepared a place for the deceased.
That place is beautiful with day, with sparkling waters
and light. Yama assigns this place for the dead." * So far

» Dutt, Ancient India, pp. 23, 34.
'Rig Veda, x. 14, 7-9.

28 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

as the Rig Veda is concerned, there is no mention of a heB
and future tortures to occasion somberness in life.

6. Vedic Religion. — The key to Indian history is like
that which unlocks Jewish historical records; it is the
key of religion. As a leading watchword among certain
recent religious reformers of India is " Back to the Ve-
das ! " the early religion should receive special attention,
particularly the hymns found in the Rig Veda.

Classifications of Deities. — While " the hymns of t,he
Rig Veda may be divided into three classes, those in which
are especially lauded the older divinities, those in which
appear as most prominent the sacrificial gods, and those
in which a long-weakened polytheism is giving place to the
light of a clearer pantheism,'" it is simpler to class the
deities as to their supposed abode or sphere of action.
Thus " the Hindus themselves divided their gods into
highest, middle and lowest, and those of the upper sky,
the atmosphere, and the earth.'"

(a) Sky Deities — Sun God. — Among the highest
deities the Sun God was very prominent. He is pre-
eminently the Deva — " shining " one, or Surya, " Sun."
" But he is also an active force, the power that wakens,
rouses, enlivens, and as such it is he that gives all good
things to mortals and to gods. As the god that gives life
he, with others, is the author of birth, and is prayed to
for children. From above he looks down upon earth, and
as with his one or many steeds he drives over the firma-
ment he observes all that is passing below. He has these
— the physical side and the spiritual side — under two
names, the glowing one, Surya, and the enlivener, Savitar;
but he is also the good god who bestows benefits, and as
such he was known, probably locally, by the name of
Bhaga. Again, as a herdman's god, probably at first also
a local deity, he is Pushan — the meaning is almost the

* Hopkins, The Religions of India, p. 37.
•Ibid., p. 39.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 29

same with that of Savitar. As the 'mighty one' he is
Vishnu, who measures heaven in three strides.'"

Heaven and Earth. — While the Western Aryan made
Zeus his chief god, his brother in the Punjab did not give
his counterpart Dyaus, the " shining sky," so important a
place, though he is regarded as father of gods, particu-
larly of Dawn and Indra. To heaven and earth, which
are linked together in the hymns, are ascribed secondary
functions, such as bringing the gods to sacrifice, bestow-
ing upon mortals children, wealth, food, and the strength
of heroes. The two gods are mostly addressed with sac-
rificial intent.

Varuna. — Varuna, Greek Oipavos, is more powerful
and was highly honored. Though he appears in a variety
of relations to men, especially as a water-god, in the most
exalted representations of him " his realm is all above us ;
the sun and stars are his eyes. He sits above upon his
golden throne and sees all that passes below, even the
thoughts of men. He is, above all, the moral controller
of the universe.'" Here is a Vedic quotation which depicts
this " sky-god of righteousness " as viewed by sinning
men:

Prayer for Forgiveness. — "3. O Varuna ! with an
anxious heart I ask thee about my sins. I have gone to
learned men to make the inquiry ; the sages have all said to
me, ' Varuna is displeased with thee.' . . . 4. O Varuna !
for what deed of mine dost thou wish to destroy thy
friend, thy worshiper? O thou of irresistible power, de-
clare it to me, so that I may quickly bend in adoration and
come to thee. 5. O Varuna ! deliver us from the sins of
our fathers. Deliver us from the sins committed in our
person. O royal Varuna ! deliver Vasishtha like a calf
from its tether, like a thief who has feasted on a stolen
animal. 6. O Varuna! all this sin is not wilfully com-

' Hopkins, The Religions of India, p. 41.
■Ibid., p. 62.

30 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

mitted by us. Error or wine, anger or dice, or even
thoughtlessness has begotten sin. Even an elder brother
leads his younger astray. Sin is begotten even in our
dreams. 7. Freed from sins, I virill serve as a slave the
god Varuna, who fulfills our wishes and supports us. We
are ignorant; may the Arya god bestow on us knowledge.
May the wise deity accept our prayer and bestow on us
wealth.'"

Other Sky Deities. — Other deities of the sky are bound-
less Aditi, the mother of Varuna and of the luminous
gods, as well as of kings ; the two phenomenal deities,
Dawn and Night, to whom some of the most poetic of the
hymns are addressed; and the Asvins, the "Twin Horse-
men," who were variously interpreted as being Heaven and
Earth, Day and Night, Sun and Moon, Two Earthly
Kings, or, according to the current explanation. Dawn and
Gloaming.

(b) Gods of Mid-air — Wind. — The atmosphere lying
between earth and the upper sky was alive with deities
which were most needful for the common life, and hence
they were assiduously worshiped. The winds, named
Vata or Vayu, constitute the invisible interpretation of
divinity. They bring long life to the worshiper, but even
more than this is true of Vata :

" The friend is he of waters ;
First-born and holy, — where was he created,
And whence arose he? Spirit of gods is Vata,
Source of creation, goeth where he listeth ;
Whose sound is heard, but not his form." '

Indra and Rains. — But as the rain long delayed in its
coming to the thirsty Punjab is to-day an object of in-
tense desire to its inhabitants, so in Vedic times Indra,
pre-eminently the rain bringer, though identified with

^Kig Veda, vii., 86.

» Hopkina, The Religions of India, p. 89.

' SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 3 1

Other powers, is the oft-invoked deity of the Aryan. He
and his allied Maruts, or " Gleaming Ones," led on by
their father Rudra, the ruddy thunder, is struggling for
mastery with the enemy of men, Vritra, who tries in
vain to restrain the fertilizing showers. The conflict ends
when Parjanya finally scatters upon the earth the rain-
drops, so arduously won. When it is remembered that this
powerful and beneficent friend of the husbandman is
also a helper of the warrior, these two stanzas from a
hymn to Indra will not appear extravagant:

" 'Tis Indra all (our) songs extol,
Him huge as ocean in extent;
Of warriors chiefest warrior he,
Lord, truest lord, for booty's gain.

" In friendship, Indra, strong as thine
Naught will we fear, O lord of strength ;
To thee we our laudations sing.
The conqueror unconquered." ^

(c) Terrestrial Gods — Agni. — As Indra was greater
in the popular conception than the heavenly gods, so that
powerful deity of mid-air is eclipsed by Agni and Soma,
gods of the earth. Agni is at once the fire of the altar,
of Indra's lightning, and of the far distant sun ; but from
this " triality " he emerges most commonly as the altar
fire. " He appealed to man as the best friend among divine
beings; he was not far off, to be wondered at; if terrible,
to be propitiated. He was near and kind to friends. And
as he seemed to the vulgar, so he appealed to the theosophy
which permeates the spirit of the poets; for he is myste-
rious; a mediator between god and man — in carrying to
heaven the offerings; a three-fold unity, typical of earth,
atmosphere, and Tieaven.'" He is also at once the house
priest and the summoner of the gods to the sacrifice.

^Rig Veda, \., 11.

'Hopkins, The Religions of India, p. 106.

32 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Soma. — Older than its Vedic deification is the honor
bestowed upon the moon-plant, Soma, whose intoxicating
drink is inseparably connected with the worship of Indra
and Agni. Its claim to deity seems to be due to the fact
that the exhilarating effect of intoxication was regarded
as proof positive of the inherent divinity of the moon-
plant's juice. Indra's greatest deeds were done when
under the spell of the Soma intoxicant, and upon it de-
pends the immortality of all gods. It is " Soma who
overthrows cities. Soma who begets the gods, creates the
sun, upholds the sky, prolongs life, sees all things, and
is the one best friend of god and man, the divine drop,
the friend of Indra.'"

Yama. — All the gods thus far mentioned are capable
of being considered creations of a nature worship. An-
other great deity not capable of such an interpretation is
Yama, " first of mortals," who later became king of the
dead. " As Yama was the first to die, so was he the first
to teach men the road to immortality, which lies through
sacrifice, whereby man attains to heaven and to immor-
tality.""

Yama's Heaven. — The nostalgia that affected the
Aryan who longed for Yama's realm is well voiced in the
following Vedic hymn : " 7. Flowing Soma ! take me
to that immortal and imperishable abode where light dwells
eternal, and which is in heaven. Flow, Soma ! for Indra.
8. Take me where Yama is king, where are the gates of
heaven, and where mighty rivers flow. Take me there and
make me immortal. Flow, Soma ! for Indra. 9. Take
me where is the third heaven, where is the third realm of
light above the sky, and where one can wander at his
will. Take me there, and make me immortal. Flow,
Soma ! for Indra. 10. Take me where every desire is
satiated, where Pradhma has his abode, where there is

'Hopkins, The Religions of India, p. 113.
'Ibid., p. 130.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 33

food and contentment. Take me there and make me im-
mortal. Flow, Soma! for Indra. 11. Take me where
there are pleasures and joys and delights, and where
every desire of the anxious heart is satiated. Take me
there, and make me immortal. Flow, Soma ! for Indra.'"
Vedic Henotheism. — Portions of the Veda which
seem to be most recent indicate that the earlier polytheism
became, in the latter part of the period, what Max-Miiller
calls henotheism — one-godism. Hopkins designates it
as pantheistic polytheism, and Professor Lehman calls it
syncretism. The names of the many gods — in the above
summary only a very brief list is given — appear now as
appellations of one great power, " the Father and Creator
of all." While the following sublime hymn to the supreme
deity of the Aryans is in its opening sentences in strong
contrast to the first words of Genesis, " In the beginning
God," much of it would apply to the descriptions of
Jehovah as found in many Old Testament passages :

" What god shall we adore with sacrifice ?

Him let us praise, the golden child that rose

In the beginning, who was born the lord —

The one sole lord of all that is — who made

The earth, and formed the sky, who giveth life,

Who giveth strength, whose bidding gods revere.

Whose hiding place is immortality,

Whose shadow, death ; who by his might is king

Of all the breathing, sleeping, waking world.

Where'er let loose in space, the mighty waters

Have gone, depositing a fruitful seed.

And generating fire there he arose

Who is the breath and life of all the gods.

Whose mighty glance looks round the vast expanse

Of watery vapor — source of energy.

Cause of the sacrifice — the only God

Above the gods." '

'^Rig Veda, xi., 113.

' Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 14.

34 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

III. The Epic Period, 1400-1000 b. c.

1. 'Hindu Expansion. — The Aryan immigrants of the
Vedic age had formed settlements in Northwestern India
along the Indus and its tributaries. In the period now
under consideration the Aryans, or preferably in the subse-
quent history, the Hindus, spread southeastward into the
Ganges valley as far as Benares and Behar, establishing
kingdoms as they went. The new and more favorable en-
vironment caused these peoples to excel their early
achievements in the Punjab, leading to an expansion of
thought and an extension of culture quite as noteworthy
as was their enlargement of territory. Their military
deeds, their heroisms, their daily life, and their religious
aspirations are set forth in the later portions of the Vedas,
and especially in the two great epics of India relating to
this period, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. It must
not be supposed that the epics were composed during this
period, however, nor is it even certain that the events nar-
rated were as early as the centuries under consideration.

2. The Mahabharata. — The Kurus, a later appellation
of the Bharatas derived from the name of their kings, and
the Panchalas, " Five Tribes," were prominent and neigh-
boring kingdoms of the early time. Friendly rivalry in
the pursuits of peace eventuated in jealousies, and finally,
more than one thousand years before our era, they ended
in the famous war which is the background of the great
epic, the Mahabharata, " the great Bharata." Its heroes
are the five sons of Pandu, allies probably of the Pan-
chalas; and their common wife, daughter of the king of
the Panchalas, is the heroine. Only about one-fourth of
the poem is devoted to the war itself, in which the Pan-
chalas were victorious. Its value lies in its episodal ma-
terial, including cosmogony, theogony, law, religions,
morals; so that "the Mahabharata gradually became

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 35

a collection of all that was needed to be known by an
educated Hindu, in fact, it became the encyclopedia of
India."

3. The Ramayana. — The other great Indian epic, the
Ramayana, is superior to the Mahabharata in literary
value, and was possibly the product of a single poet, tra-
dition doubtfully says Valmiki. Unlike its cyclopedic
rival, the Ramayana is wholly devoted to the history of
Rama, eldest son of the king of the Kosalas. They, the
Videhas, the daughter of whose king Rama marries, and
the Kasis — the name perpetuated in India's holy city,
Kasi or Benares — were other leading peoples of the epic
period. Of Rama and his much-enduring wife, whose
warrings, trials and wanderings are depicted in the poem,
a native writer says: "There is not a Hindu woman in
the length and breadth of India to whom the story of the
suffering Sita is not known, and to whom her character is
not a model and a pattern; and Rama, too, is a model to
men for his faithfulness, his obedience, and his piety."

4. Social Changes. — The age described in these epics
exhibits many changes, some of which developed later into
India's most harmful institutions. As has been seen, the
loose tribal confederation of Vedic times had developed a
number of well compacted nations. The maintenance of
peace and the extension of territory necessitated a force
of warriors at whose head was, not one of themselves tem-
porarily leading his forces, who later returned to his flocks
and fields as in the earlier times, but a king with his
retinue of attendants. This force so effectually protected
the masses that they no longer needed to bear arms, and
yielding to the enervating effects of the climate, they be-
came Vaisyas devoted to agriculture and other pursuits
of peace. The simple faith of the Rig Veda had gradually
developed into stately and burdensome forms, with sacri-
fices innumerable. In order to rightly perform these sac-
rifices and the accompanying ritual, a priesthood came

36 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

into existence and the " families who knew these holy
words by heart became the hereditary owners of the litur-
gies required at the most solemn offerings to the gods.
Members of such households were chosen again and again
to conduct the tribal sacrifices, to chant the battle hymn,
to implore the divine aid, or to pray away the divine wrath.
Even the early Rig Veda recognizes the importance of
these sacrifices. ' That king,' says a verse, ' before whom
marches the priest, he alone dwells well established in his
own house; to him the people bow down. The king who
gives wealth to the priest, he will conquer; him the gods
will protect.' The tribesmen first hoped, then believed,
that a hymn or prayer which had once acted successfully
and been followed by victory, would again produce the
same results. ... By degrees a vast array of ministrants
grew up around each of the greater sacrifices. There
were first the officiating priests and their assistants, who
prepared the sacrificial ground, dressed the altar, slew
the victims, and poured out the libations ; second, the
chanters of the Vedic hymns; third, the reciters of other
parts of the service; fourth, the superior priests, who
watched over the whole, and corrected mistakes."

The Four Castes. — It was but a short step from the con-
ditions just named to that system which was the pregnant
seed of the modern institution of caste, India's greatest in-
cubus to-day. In addition to the indispensable propitiators
of the gods, the priests, or Brahmans, were the warriors
known as Kshattriyas, some of whom are to-day called Raj-
puts, especially those in the province of Rajputana. Next in
order came the husbandmen, who retained their old name,
Vaisyas, from the root vis, which, in Vedic times was
applied to the whole "people." "These three classes
gradually became separate castes; intermarriage between
them was forbidden, and each kept more and more strictly
to its hereditary employment. But they were all recog-
nized as belonging to the ' Twice-born,' or Aryan race ;

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS ^J

they were all present at the great national sacrifices, and
all worshipped the same Bright Gods. Beneath them was
a fourth or servile class, called Sudras, the remnants of
the vanquished aboriginal tribes whose lives had been
spared. These were ' the slave-bands of black descent,'
the Dasas of the Veda. They were distinguished from
their ' Twice-born ' Aryan conquerors as being only ' Once-
born,' and by many contemptuous epithets. They were
not allowed to be present at the great national sacrifices,
or at the feasts which followed them. They could never
rise out of their servile condition; and to them was as-
signed the severest toil in the fields, and all the hard and
dirty work of the village community.'"

Woman in Society. — The status of woman was still
honorable. Child-marriage was unknown, and widows
were allowed to remarry. The influence of women in
society was extensively felt, and at the trials of skill and
manly strength they were central figures among the spec-
tators. While the epics contain innuendos and open as-
saults on womanhood, the following lines from the Maha-
bharata contain a truer estimate of the women of the
time :

" The weary man whom toils oppress.

When travelling through life's wilderness,

Finds in his spouse a place of rest,

And there abides, refreshed and blest.

Although with children bright it teems.

And full of light and gladness seems, ^

A man's abode, without a wife.

Is empty, lacks its real life.

The housewife makes the house; bereft

Of her, a gloomy waste 'tis left.

Thou sayest right; for all the ills of life

No cure exists, my fair one, like a wife." '

5. Religion in the Epic Age. — It was this period which
witnessed the permanent collection of the great canonical

' Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 132.
' Murdoch, Women of India, p. S.

38 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

books of the Aryans. The Vedas — "Inspired knowl-
edge" — had existed in the memory and upon the lips of
the Rishi and the more intelligent among the people dur-
ing the Vedic period; now and in the following period
they assume written form in four collections or Sanhitas.
For the sake of clearness in presenting this literature, later
works and revisions are named with those clearly belong-
ing to the epic age.

(a) The Aryan Sacred Literature — Vedas. — "The
Rig Veda exhibits the hymns in their simplest form, ar-
ranged in ten ' circles,' according to the families of their
composers, the Rishis. . . . The second, or Sama Veda,
was made up of extracts from the Rig Vedic hymns used at
the Soma sacrifice. Some of its verses stamp themselves,
by their antiquated grammatical form, as older than their
rendering in the Rig Veda itself. The third, or Yajur
Veda, consists not only of Rig Vedic verses, but also of
prose sentences, to be used at the sacrifices of the New
and Full Moon, and at the Great Horse-Sacrifice, when
609 animals of various kinds were offered, perhaps in sub-
stitution for an earlier Man-Sacrifice, which is also men-
tioned in the Yajur Veda. The Yajur Veda is divided into
two editions, the Black and the White Yajur; both belong
ing to a more modern period than either the Rig or the
Sama Vedas, and composed after the Aryans had spread far
to the east of the Indus. The fourth, or 'Atharva Veda,
was compiled from the least ancient hymns of the Rig
Veda in the tenth book, and from the still later songs of
the Brahmans, after they had established their priestly
power. It supplies the connecting link between the simple
Aryan worship of the Shining Ones, exhibited in the Rig
Veda, and the complex Brahmanical system which fol-
lowed. It was only allowed to rank as part of the Veda
after a long struggle.'"

Auxiliary Literature — Brahmanas. — To each of these

' Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 129, 130.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 39

four Vedas was attached a Brahmana, a prose treatise,
more fully explaining the ritual and the functions of the
officiating priest, and also laying down religious prin-
ciples and dogmas. These, with the Vedas themselves,
form the Sruti or things literally " heard " from God, and
so they constitute the Revealed Scriptures of the Hindus.

Aranyakas and Upanishads. — Closely connected with
the Brahmanas were two other classes of writings, the
product of this period. They are the Aranyakas, the
" forest treatises," which were so called because they dis-
cussed elements so abstruse that the seclusion of the an-
chorite was required for their proper mastery, and the
Upanishads, or " secret doc .rine." These latter, which
are also classed among the Sruti, and whose number is
variously reckoned as from 108 to 235, treat of the nature
of the Brahman, or Supreme Spirit, and the means of
union with him, of certain systems of philosophy, and of
later identifications of the Supreme Being with forms of
Vishnu, Siva, etc. It is this work that created so great
an enthusiasm for Indian religion in Europe in the days of
Schopenhauer and Schelling, so that the former could say
of their study, " It has been the solace of my life, it will
be the solace of my death,'" but the influence of the Upan-
ishads has been far more wide-reaching in India itself
through the impulse transmitted by Rammohun Roy and
subsequent renewers of the ancient religion of the Brah-
mans. The reformer just named, who expressed in equiv-
ocal terms his belief in the divine authority of Jesus
Christ,^ and who rejected the Puranas, must have seen in
these speculations something which he regarded as of
divine authority, yet an Occidental reader of the transla-
tion will find in them very much that is puerile and
unworthy, mingled with some fine gold.

Transmigration. — One of the most fundamental ideas

^ Schopenhauer, Parerga, 3d ed., vol. ii., p. 426.
'Carpenter, Last Days of Rammohun Roy, p. 13s.

40 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

of Indian religion first obtained clear expression in the
Upanishads, namely, that of transmigration, which Sir
Monier-Williams characterizes as " the one haunting
thought which colors the whole texture of Indian phil-
osophy.'" It rests upon a belief in man's kinship with
every grade of being from the plant to deities, and is con-
nected with the inherent belief in the inevitability of retri-
bution.^ " Those whose conduct has been good will
quickly attain some good birth, the birth of a Brahmana,
or a Kshattriya, or a Vaisya. But those whose conduct
has been evil will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth
of a dog, or a hog, or a Kandala.'"

(b) Religion and Hindu Sciences. — By-products of this
more highly organized religion are found in the develop-
ment of the sciences in the epic period. Dr. Thibaut attrib-
utes the rise of Indian astronomy to the necessity of
knowing the exact time for certain sacrifices, while the
laws of phonetics were investigated because the wrath
of the gods followed the wrong pronunciation of a single
letter. Grammar and etymology were also studied, since
they had the task of interpreting the sacred texts. Arith-
metic, pre-eminently a Hindu science, was likewise devel-
oped during this age.*

(c) Popular Religion. — Religion of the daily life was
becoming more formal, yet in spite of the growing influ-
ence of the Brahmans there still existed considerable per-
sonal and formal religion. " While kings and wealthy
men delighted in elaborate sacrifices, all pious Hindus, be
they rich or poor, performed their little rites at their
domestic firesides. No idol was worshipped, and no
temple was known; the descendants of the Vedic Hindus
still went through their religious ceremonies in their own

' Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 26.

'Progress, November, 1897, p. 196.

' Max-Miiller, The Upanishads, vol. i., p. 82.

• Dutt, Ancient India, pp. 62, 63.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 4I

homes, and offered oblations and prayers according to
ancient rule.

The Ideal Man. — " Hospitality to strangers is pre-
scribed as a religious obligation, while the essence of a
Hindu's duties is inculcated in such passages as these:
Speak the truth. Do thy duty. Do not neglect the study
of the Veda. After having brought to thy teacher the
proper reward, marry and beget children. Do not swerve
from the truth. Do not swerve from duty. Do not neg-
lect what is useful. Do not neglect greatness. Do not
neglect the teaching of the Veda. Do not neglect the sac-
rifices due to the gods and the fathers. Let thy mother
be to thee like unto a god. Let thy father be to thee like
unto a god. Blameless acts should be regarded, not
others. Good works performed by us should be regarded
by thee.'"

IV. Period of Territorial and Intellectual Expan-
sion, 1000-320 E. c.

I. General Character of the Period. — A native author-
ity, T. J. Desai, regards these centuries as including per-
haps the most brilliant period of Hindu history. " It was
in this period that the Aryans issued out of the Gangetic
valley, spread themselves far and wide, and introduced
Hindu civilization and founded Hindu kingdoms as far
as the southernmost limits of India. Magadha, or South
Behar, which was already known to the Hindus in the
epic period, was completely Hinduized in this epoch ;
and the young and powerful kingdom founded here soon
eclipsed all the ancient kingdoms of the Gangetic valley.
Buddhism spread from Magadha to surrounding king-
doms, and when Chandra Gupta, the contemporary of
Alexander the Great, brought the whole of Northern
India into one great empire, the epoch ends and the next

' Dutt, Ancient India, pp. 60, 61.

42 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

one begins.'" While the Hindus had thus spread through-
out India, its southern and eastern portions were still
mainly non-Aryan, though these sections had taken on
a veneer of Hindu religion and civilization.

2. Intellectual Expansion — Science. — It is evident
from the foregoing that the Hindus of this period were
valiant warriors and fairly successful civilizers of rude
tribes ; but what of those who remained in their more cen-
tral homes along the Ganges? Learning flourished,
spurred on mainly by the demands of religion. Geometry,
which had its beginning in the epic age, was now form-
ally set forth in the Sulva Sutras of the eighth century.
It was necessitated by the minute specifications as to altar
construction and this at a period prior by a century or
two to the work of Thales and Pythagoras, the reputed
founders of the science in the West. The decimal nota-
tion, unknown to Greeks and Romans and introduced into
Europe by Arabs returning from India, was in common
use. Our so-called Arabic numerals were derived from
India. They are variations of the abbreviated forms 9f
initials of Sanskrit names of the numerals, zero, e. g.,
representing fhe first letter of the word for empty.'
Algebra was also cultivated by the Brahmans. As Dr.
Wise has shown, Hippocrates, the father of Greek Medi-
cine, borrowed his materia medica from the Hindus. Cer-
tain it is that Alexander the Great maintained Hindu phy-
sicians in his camp in order to treat diseases which Greek
practitioners could not heal.' European medicine down
to the seventh century was based upon the Arabic which,
in turn, depended upon early translation of Sanskrit medi-
cal treatises. While the acme of the healing art was not
reached until later, the pharmacy, dissecting and surgery
of the Hindus was remarkable during these centuries."*

* India, Ceylon, etc., pp. 298, 299.

' See Taylor, The Alphabet, toI. ii., pp. 336-268.

■ Dutt, Ancient India, p. 95.

•For details consult Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 148-150.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS

43

Philosophy. — But it was in the field of philosophy and
logic that the Hindus of this age achieved their highest
fame. Indeed this factor is so prominent that some Indian
writers have called these centuries the Philosophical or
Rationalistic Age. The Sankhya — Synthesis — philos-
ophy of Kapila dates probably from the seventh century,
and according to Davies it is " the earliest recorded sys-
tem of philosophy." In his view the German systems of
Schopenhauer and Hartmann are merely a " reproduction
of the philosophic system of Kapila in its materialistic
part, presented in a more elaborate form, but on the same
fundamental lines.'"

Its Six Schools. — The Shat Sastras or " Six Instru-
ments of True Teaching," also called Shad Darsanas, or
" Six Demonstrations of Truth," were probably written
during this period and at any rate contained the views of
the time. They are as follows: Nyaya, founded by
Gautama; Vaiseshika, by Kanada; Sankhya, by Kapila;
Yoga, by Patanjali; Mimansa, by Jaimini; Vedanta, by
Badarayana or Vyasa. Into the intricacies of these mu-
tually conflicting systems we cannot enter, but would
jefer the reader to other sources." The Nyaya system con-
'tains in its early part the basis of Hindu logic with its
•famous syllogism of five terms. The Yoga and Vedanta
systems are of especial interest to the missionary because
of their closer relation to modern ascetic practices and
religious reform.

3. Popular Religion. — While most of the works named
above have to do with religion, such abstruse speculations
did not largely affect the masses. They were more inter-
ested in some of the Sutras — literally strings — which
were collections of aphorisms deduced from the Brahmana
literature of the epic period. Rigid condensation was the

^ Dutt, Ancient India, p. 96.

^ For summaries see Monier- Williams, Hinduism, pp. 187-206, and
his Indian Wisdom, pp. 48-126, and Mitchell, Hinduism Past and Present,
PP- 55-70.

44 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

fashion of the time, as witnesses the proverb, " An author
rejoices in the economizing of half a short vowel as much
as in the birth of a son." Hence in these Sutras the
priest had put in briefest form the essence of the sacred
books for the guidance of the people. The two which
most concerned them were the house ritual, Grihya Sutras,
and the law ritual, or Dharma Sutras, the reputed work
of Father Manu and Yajnavalkya. How largely they
entered into the life may be gathered from Professor Hop-
kins's statement : " For every change in life there was an
appropriate ceremony and a religious observance; for
every day, oblations three at least ; for every fortnight and
season, a sacrifice. Religious formulae were said over
the child yet unborn. From the moment of birth he was
surrounded with observances. At such and such a time
the child's head was shaved; he was taken out to look
at the sun ; made to eat from a golden spoon ; invested
with the sacred cord, etc., etc. When grown up, a certain
number of years were passed with a guru, or tutor, who
taught the boy his Veda, and to whom he acted as body-
servant, a study and office often cut short in the case of
Aryans who were not priests. Of the sacraments alone,
such as the observances to which we have just alluded,
there are no less than forty according to Gautama's laws
— the name-rite, eating-rite, etc. The pious householder
who had once set up his own fire, that is, got married,
must have spent most of his time, if he followed directions,
in attending to some religious ceremony. He had several
little rites to attend to even before he might say his
prayers in the morning; and since even to-day most of
these personal regulations are dutifully observed, one may
assume that in the full power of Brahmanhood they were
very straitly enforced.'"

Ancestor Worship. — The most important of the house-
hold rites was the Sraddha periodically offered to deceased

' Hopkins, Religions of India, pp. 245, 246.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 45

ancestors. These Pitri — Fathers, or Manes — were hon-
ored in Vedic times, but from this period to the present
day the worship has been so prominent that Professor
Bhattacharjya is led to make so extreme a statement as
the following concerning it: " Ancestor worship, in some
form or other, is the beginning, the middle and the end of
what is known as the Hindu religion." It is a most impor-
tant part of a son's duty to see that the departed parent
is provided with an intermediate body and enabled to per-
form the terrible journey to Yama.

4. Buddhism. — The greatest contribution of this
period to the Asiatic world was Buddhism. Gautama,'
" The Buddha," that is, " The Enlightened," was born,
according to one of many conflicting views, in 557 b. c.
The leading facts in his life, with the dates as based upon
that birth year, are as follows ■'

Leading Facts and Dates. b. c.

Born near Kapilavastu SS7

His marriage with Yasodhara 538

Left his home, wife and infant 328

Became enlightened at Buddha-Gaya, and pro-
claimed his religion at Benares 522

Revisited his home 521

His father, Suddhodana, died, and his stepmother

and wife joined the Order 517

His son, Rahula, joined the Order 508

Yasodhara's father died 507

Gautama died 477

^ The name Gautama is that of the great " Solar " race of which
his family was a branch, and is also borne by two noted persons of
this period; one, the distinguished logician, the other, a writer of
Dharma Sutras. Other common appellations of Buddha are: Siddhartha,
" he who has accomplished his aim," which was his personal name; Sakya,
Gautama's tribal name; Sakya-muni, the Sakya saga; Sakya-sinha, the
Sakya lion; Sramana, "Ascetic"; Bhagava, "The Blessed"; Dharma-
raja, " Kmg of Righteousness"; Jina, "Conqueror"; Sugata, "The
Happy One"; Sattha, "The Teacher"; Loka-natha, "Lord of the
World"; and the Sarvajna, "Omniscient One." — Davids, Buddhism,
p. 28.

'India, Ceylon, etc p. 301.

46 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Buddha's Daily Work. — Oldenberg furnishes this de-
scription of Buddha's daily life : " He, as well as his
disciples, rises early, when the light of dawn appears in
the sky, and spends the early morning in spiritual exercise
or in converse with his disciples, and then he proceeds
with his companions towards the town. In the days when
his reputation stood at its highest point, and his name was
named throughout India among the foremost names, one
might day by day see that man, before whom kings bowed
themselves, alms-bowl in hand, going through streets and
alleys, from house to house, and without uttering any
request, with downcast look, stand silently waiting until
a morsel of food was thrown into his bowl.'"

Buddhism a Development of Hinduism. — But it is not
the mendicant who has so largely influenced India. Seek-
ing a refuge from the ills of life and the perplexing prob-
lems of thought in Hindu philosophy and in its prescribed
penances and mortifications, Buddha at last realized their
emptiness and reached his great discovery. A holy and
calm life, love toward all living creatures, the practice of
benevolence — these are the essence of true religion. His
leading tenets and the practices of the new Order were,
however, based on Hinduism. Thus his monastic system
was developed out of the ascetic life of earlier mendicants;
his doctrine of Karma — the residual character of this and
previous lives, surviving and bearing fruit in the next —
is a modification of the metempsychosis of the Upanishads;
his Nirvana grew out of the Hindu idea of final union
with the Universal Soul as set forth in the same treatises ;
and even Hindu gods were not left out; for they, as well
as men, were progressing toward the near ok far off goal
of Nirvana.

Buddhism's Tenets. — Buddha's prolonged meditations
resulted in the formulation of " The Four Great Truths,"
which are as follows: Sentient love is accompanied by
'^Dutt, Ancient India, p. loo.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 47

pain ; there is a cause for this pain ; there is a destruction for
the cause of this pain ; there is a way or path that leads to
the destruction of the cause of pain. These truths are called
" Law of the Wheel," as they " revolve in a circle which
should constantly be moving before the minds of men."
The way of deliverance is expressed in the " Eight Divis-
ions," which are right views, right aims, right words, right
behavior, right mode of livelihood, right exertion, right
mindedness, right meditation and tranquility. There are
ten fetters to be broken in the " Four Stages of the Path,"
namely, delusion of self, doubt, dependence on works, bod-
ily passions, hatred or ill-feeling, love of life on earth,
desire for hfe in heaven, pride, self-righteousness, and
ignorance.'

The Ten Commandments. — For practical guidance in
the realm of conduct Buddha gave his followers ten com-
mandments. The first five, binding on laity and priest-
hood alike, are: Not to kill, not to steal, not to commit
adultery, not to lie, not to be drunken. The remaining five
apply to those who are in pursuit of Nirvana and who
have entered on the religious life. They are: Absten-
tion from food out of season, that is, after mid-day ; absten-
tion from dances, theatrical representations, songs and
music ; abstention from personal ornaments and perfumes ;
abstention from a lofty and luxurious couch; and absten-
tion from taking gold and silver.

Secret of Buddhism's Success. — Buddhism was a pro-
test against the tyranny of Brahmanism and caste, and the
cause of its success is thus stated by Sir William Hun-
ter: "The secret of Buddha's success was that he
brought spiritual deliverance to the people. He preached
that salvation was equally open to all men, and that it must
^be earned, not by propitiating imaginary deities, but by
^our own conduct. His doctrines thus cut away the reli-
gious basis of caste, impaired the efficiency of the sacri-
' Davids, Buddhism, pp. 108-110.

48 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

ficial ritual, and assailed the supremacy of the Brahmans
as the mediators between God and man. Buddha taught
that sin, sorrow, and deliverance, the state of a man in this
life, in all previous and in all future lives, are the inevit-
able results of his own acts (Karma). He thus applied
the inexorable law of cause and effect to the soul. What
a man sows, he must reap. By this great law of Karma,
Buddha explained the inequalities and apparent injustice
of man's estate in this world as the consequence of acts
in the past ; while Christianity compensates those inequali-
ties by rewards in the future. A system in which our
whole well-being, past, present, and to come, depends on
ourselves, theoretically leaves little room for the interfer-
ence or even existence, of a personal God. But the
atheism of Buddha was a philosophical tenet, which, so far
from weakening the sanctions of right and wrong, gave
them new strength from the doctrine of Karma, or the
metempsychosis of character.'"

V. Period of Buddhistic Ascendency 320 b. C.-400 a. d.

Before the former period had closed Buddhism had
spread quite widely over India. During the one under
consideration it reached its ascendency. While the old
faith still existed in strength Buddhism was the dominant
power, and India received from it important contributions.

I. External History — Greek Invasions. — In 327 b. c.
Alexander the Great invaded Northwestern India, enter-
ing the modern Punjab and Sind. During his two years'
1 campaign he subjugated no provinces, but he made alli-
ances, founded cities, planted garrisons, and introduced a
Greek factor into the native courts. Plis successors in
India who came from Bactria — Northern Afghanistan —
formed alliances with native potentates and penetrated
eastward to the center of the country.

* Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 1S6, 187.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 49

Greek and Bactrian Influences. — The influence of these
incursions is thus summarized by Bishop Hurst : " These
conquests never assumed the form of a regular govern-
ment. The invasions were not followed by direct and per-
manent results in the form of laws and dynasties. The
Indian, on his own soil, was always too strong for the
Greek away from home. In an indirect way there remained
traces of Greek culture. The Greeks bequeathed to India
a higher knowledge of astronomy than it ever had pos-
sessed. The architectural remains of Buddhist temples
built before the Christian era show the influence of the
Greek builder, while the sculptures of the Indian artists
which have survived to this day prove the refined taste of
the Greek. Constant additions are made in the Punjab
to the archaeological treasures emanating from this period
of Greek influence. The Bactro-Greek coins in use in
India were numerous, and are still coming to the light.'"

Scythian Invaders. — Following Alexander and his suc-
cessors came another company of invaders who drove out
their earlier Grasco-Bactrian forerunners and continued
to be a powerful factor in India until the beginning of the
next period. The Scythians, who were shepherds and
herdsmen and whose talent was for war, exercised a larger
influence on the land. Coming from central Asia, they
soon spread over northern India. The coins of various
kings and dynasties suggest their power, while the influ-
ence of King Kanishka gave to northern Asia, as we shall
see, its peculiar form of Buddhism. Two of the best sys-
tems of Indian chronology derive their era from native
kings who fought successfully against the Scythians. One
is the Samvat, corresponding to 57 b. c. ; the other is the
Saka, "Scythian," corresponding to 78 a. d. These strug-
gles lasted for centuries before the Scythian was subdued.
While the statement that Buddha was a Scythian is
untrustworthy, it is certain that the coming of these peo-

" Hurst, Indika, p. 44.

50 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

pie to India has exerted on his faith a deeper influence
than any event since his death.

2. (a) Prominent Rulers — Chandra Gupta. — Against
the Greek invaders arose Chandra Gupta, " the moon-pro-
tected," a lowf-caste adventurer, who became the first king
of India — 316-292 b. c. He was known to the West as
Sandracottus. Though not a Buddhist, he founded the
Kingdom of Magadha which, under his grandson, was to
become the stronghold of the new faith. So powerful was
he that Seleukos, Alexander's successor and the founder
of the Syrian monarchy, gave him his daughter in mar-
riage. It is the India of his time that the Greek Megas-
thenes so graphically portrayed. Indeed, until within a
little more than a century, the Occident had no better
account of early India than his. Mandeville's travels are
illustrations of the usual type of writings.

Indian Society 300 B. C. — The following is his descrip-
tion of Indian society under this enlightened monarch.
" The Greek ambassador observed with admiration the
absence of slavery in India, the chastity of the women, and
the courage of the men. In valor they excelled all other
Asiatics; they required no locks to their doors; above all,
no Indian was ever known to tell a lie. Sober and indus-
trious, good farmers and skillful artisans, they scarcely
ever had recourse to a lawsuit and lived peaceably under
their native chiefs. The kingly government is portrayed
almost as described in Manu, with its hereditary castes of
counselors and soldiers. Megasthenes mentions that India
was divided into 118 kingdoms, some of which, such as
that of the Prasii under Chandra Gupta, exercised suzerain
powers. The village system is well described, each little
rural unit seeming to the Greek an independent republic.
Megasthenes remarked the exemption of the husbandmen
( Vaisyas) from war and public services ; and enumerates
the dyes, fibres, fabrics, and products — animal, vegetable
and mineral — of India. Husbandry depended on the peri-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 5 1

odical rains ; and forecasts of the weather, with a view to
' make adequate provision against a coming deficiency,'
formed a special duty of the Brahmans. But mark the
judicious proviso, ' The philosopher who errs in his pre-
dictions observes silence for the rest of his life.' "'

(b) Asoka or Piyadasi. — Asoka, king of Magadha
264-222 B. c, Chandra Gupta's grandson, became a con-
vert to Buddhism about 257 b. c. No king in their annals
is more illustrious than this Buddhist Constantine. " His
name is honored wherever the teachings of the Buddha
have spread, and is reverenced from the Volga to Japan,
from Ceylon and Siam to the borders of Mongolia and
Siberia. ' If a man's fame,' says Koppen, 'can be meas-
ured by the number of hearts who revere his memory, by
the number of lips who have mentioned and still mention
him with honor, Asoka is more famous than Charlemagne
or Caesar.' "'

His Edicts. — The emphasis placed upon religion and
the propagation of Buddhism is plainly seen in the four-
teen rock-cut edicts still existing in different parts of
Northern India. The gist of Edicts 4-13 is as follows:
" He made an announcement of religious grace ; appointed
ministers of religion and missionaries ; appointed moral
instructors to take cognizance of the conduct of the people ;
proclaimed universal religious toleration; recommended
pious enjoyments in preference to sensual amusements;
expatiated on the merits of imparting religious instruction
and moral advice; extolled true heroism and glory found
in spreading true religion; declared the imparting of reli-
gious instruction as the best of all kinds of charity; pro-
claimed his desire to convert all unbelievers on the prin-
ciples of universal toleration and moral persuasion; men-
tioned the conquest of Kalinga and the names of five
Greek kings, his contemporaries, to whose kingdoms as

'Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 217.
'Davids, Buddhism, pp. 221, 222.

52 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

well as to various parts of India he had sent Buddhist mis-
sionaries.'" The Greek kings referred to were Antiochus
of Syria, Ptolemy of Egypt, Antigonus of Macedon, Magus
of Cyrene, and Alexander of Epirus. Other edicts in-
scribed in Delhi, Allahabad and elsewhere still further
prove his interest in elevating society and the moral life ;
yet his very liberality toward the new faith and its minis-
ters was the beginning of its decay. ' :' '

(c) Kanishka. — Chandra Gupta's dynasty ended about
forty years after Asoka's death; and from the South came
India's great rulers for more than four centuries, 26-430
A. D. In the first Christian century, however,' when St.
Paul was beginning his missionary labors, a conqueror of
the Scythian line ruled in Central Asia and Northwestern
India, having his capital in Kashmir.-^ This King
Kanishka, referred to on a previous page, extended his
rule as far eastward as Agra, and to the north and north-
west; so that his empire was unequaled in extent from the
time of Asoka to that of the Moguls. His service to India
lies in the council convened by him and described below.

3. Councils — First Two. — Four important councils in
the history of Buddhism should be noted. The first two,
if tradition may be trusted, occurred in the previous period,
one in the year of Buddha's death, and the other a cen-
tury later. The former brought together 500 monks who
together chanted ^ the teachings of their master in order
to fix them in memory. They thus gave authority to the
early Buddhistic doctrines. These teachings later em-
bodied in the Tripitaka, " Three Baskets," are the South-
ern Buddhist's Scriptures. They are entitled Sutta Pitaka,
Vinaya Pitaka, and Abhidhamma Pitaka, and contain
respectively the sayings and doings of Buddha himself,
the rules of the monastic life affecting monks and nuns,
and disquisitions on various subjects, doctrinal and philo-

' Dutt, Ancient India, p. ii6.

* The Buddhist name for council means singing together.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 53

sophical. These were doubtless added to and changed
long after the council. A division arising among the
monks, the liberal party, who desired to gain authority for
the Ten Indulgences, were defeated by the more orthodox.
The second council of 700 members reasserted the faith,
but their decisions were not universally acknowledged and
the seceders left the main body, never again to be reunited
to them.

Asoka's Council. — In order to counteract the teachings
of heretical leaders Asoka called a council of 1,000 monks,
which convened possibly in 244 b. c. It fixed the faith of
Southern Buddhism practically as it is to-day. It was at
this time that the king determined on the edicts already
referred to, and they were accordingly cut in stone
throughout his realm.

Council of Kanishka. — It remained for King Kanishka
and the fourth council to complete in the first Christian
century the Northern Canon. Sixty-five hundred monks
compiled three commentaries, one of 100,000 couplets on
each of the Pitakas. These Sanskrit commentaries con-
stitute the Greater Vehicle of Northern Asia, as distin-
guished from the shorter or Lesser Vehicle in Pali of the
Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma and Siam. While the North-
ern Canon contains later corruptions and developments of
the Indian faith, it is far more hopeful in its character
than the atheistic Southern Canon.

4. Buddhist Missions. — Buddhism during this period
was remarkable for its missionary activity. Asoka gave the
first strong impulse in this direction. " In the year of the
council, he founded a State Department to watch over the
purity, and to direct the spread, of the faith. A Minister
of Justice and Religion directed its operations; and, as
one of its first duties was to proselytize, this Minister was
charged with the welfare of the aborigines among whom
his missionaries were sent. Asoka did not think it enough
to convert the inferior races, without looking after their

54 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

material interests. Wells were to be dug and trees planted
along the roads; a system of medical aid for man and
beast was established throughout his kingdom and the con-
quered provinces, as far as Ceylon. Officers were
appointed to watch over domestic life and public morality
and to promote instruction among the women as well as
the youth. Asoka recognized proselytism by peaceful
means as a state duty. The Rock Inscriptions record how
he sent forth missionaries ' to the utmost limits of the bar-
barian countries/ to ' intermingle among all unbelievers '
for the spread of religion. They shall mix equally with
soldiers, Brahmans, and beggars, with the dreaded and the
despised, both within the kingdom ' and in foreign coun-
tries, teaching better things.' Conversion is to be effected
by persuasion, not by the sword. Buddhism was at once
the most intensely missionary religion in the world and
the most tolerant. This character of a proselytizing faith,
which wins its victories by peaceful means, so strongly
impressed upon it by Asoka, has remained a prominent
feature of Buddhism to the present day.'" It may be
added that the object-lesson, afforded by the going to Cey-
lon as missionaries of King Asoka's own son and daugh-
ter, proved an important factor in the early propaganda.

5. The Jains. — A religion allied to Buddhism and Hin-
duism, but especially to the former, is that of the Jains.
An unsettled controversy concerning its origin and age
prevents any dogmatic statement; yet, either parallel with
Buddhism's rise and independent of it, or as an offshoot
from it, this body of religionists came into existence. With
the Buddhists, they denied the divine authority of the
Vedas and opposed the destruction of animal life, so com-
mon among Brahmans; while, with the Brahmans, they
favored caste, performed their essential ceremonies, and
even recognized subordinate Hindu deities. Their earlier
books may date from the period under consideration.

' Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 190, 191.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 55

6. Buddhist Civilization. — Less important than the
new religion, and yet part of its fruitage, are the elements
of its civilization which are so prominent during the Bud-
dhistic age. The demands of the Buddhist society gave
rise to great structures in stone; and hence architecture
was developed, reaching its acme about the beginning of
the Christian era. Both monasteries and churches, how-
ever, were, for the most part, excavated out of living
rock. It is probably true that sculpture and painting, as
well as architecture, were superior at that time, for the
reason that after the decay of Buddhism and the new
emphasis of caste, these arts fell under the spell of the
caste system which relegated such employments to the
laboring classes, who lacked the brain. for superior work.
Medicine reached its zenith under the Buddhists, and
because of the impetus given the study by the Greeks,
eighteen Hindu astronomical works were written. It was
now also that the Laws of Manu were recast in verse
and modified to meet the views of the age. The two
longest books of Manu's Institutes are still regarded as
important, and portions of them are authoritative in mod-
ern Indian courts. Among minor sins mentioned by Manu
are those of " superintending mines and factories, and
executing great mechanical works."

VI. The Pukanic Period — 500-1000 a. d.

I. Preview. — During these centuries Buddhism grad-
ually lost its power and finally ceased to be an important
factor in India's life, its place being taken by a new form
of Hinduism which is largely the forerunner of the popu-
lar religion of to-day. Already, however. Buddhism had
sounded forth its message from the shores of the Medi-
terranean to the Yellow Sea and had won millions of
adherents, from the Central Asiatic roof of the world to
the Malay Archipelago. Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Java, and

56 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

adjacent islands, Tibet and the regions to its north and
northwest, and the vast empire of China, were hence7
forth the patrons of that faith, which had been rejected
and driven from its home by Buddha's own countrymen.
These centuries, moreover, were the Augustan Age of
Hindu Hterature, resplendent with a glory all the more
striking because of the two centuries of darkness with
which the period closed.

2. Buddhism's Passing. — A Chinese Buddhist, Hsiian
Tsang, who returned from India in the year 645 with 657
books, many pictures and images, and 150 relics' is our
most reliable source of information concerning Buddhism
at that day. Indeed, Bishop Bigandet, in his Life of
Gaudama, says of him and Fa Hsien, an earlier pilgrim:
" The voyages of two Chinese travelers, undertaken in
the fifth and seventh centuries of our era, have done more
to elucidate the history and geography of India than all
that has hitherto been found in the Sanskrit and Pali
Books of that and the neighboring countries.'" Though
the famous Buddhist centers of Magadha were in decay or
declining, in Behar, Nalanda and its university arose to be
for moribund Buddhism what Cluny and Clairvaux were
to France in the Middle Ages. " Ten thousand monks
and novices of the Eighteen Schools there studied
theology, philosophy, law, science — especially medicine —
and practiced their devotions.'" While on its scholastic
side Nalanda showed no signs of decline, popular Bud-
dhism came to be mainly a matter of pilgrimages, cere-
monial, and image worship. For centuries Hinduism had
taken on more and more of its rival's popular features and
hence ministered to the need which originally called the
latter into existence. Moreover, Buddhism grew increas-
ingly corrupt, until finally cruel persecutions and oppres-

' Giles, Chinese Biographical Dictionary, No. 8oi.

• Beal, Chinese Buddhism, p. i8.

'Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xii., p. 786, 9th edition.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 57

sion, instigated by learned Brahmans, led to its extermi-
nation. In the twelfth century scarcely a Buddhist re-
mained in India proper.

Buddhism's Legacy. — Though defunct in the land of
its birth, Buddhism has left visible traces of its original
power, aside from its living presence in Burma to-day.
The principle of human brotherhood, the asylum which the
great Vaishnav sect affords to female victims of caste
rules, to widows and outcasts, gentleness and charity to
all men, and those elements of Gautama's teachings which
are crystallized in the " mild " Hindu of to-day, are sur-
vivals which for more than two milleniums have made
India a better country.

3. India's Augustan Age. — One of a reigning family,
Vikramaditya the Great, a Brahmanist, who may have
ruled in the sixth century, so encouraged literature that his
reign saw the renaissance of Sanskrit and the beginning
of that of Hinduism as well. Nearly all of the great
works popular among Hindus to-day date from the period
then begun. Among the luminaries of this time are
India's Shakespeare, Kalidasa, whose Sakuntala Goethe
so greatly admired; Amara Sinha, the lexicographer;
Aryabhata, the founder of modern Hindu astronomy; and
Bhavabhuti, the last of the great poets and literary men
of ancient India. Of the strictly belles lettres section of
the literature produced, it must be confessed that it is dis-
appointingly sensuous in character and without high
ideals. Its best elements are borrowings from the early
Epics. Contributions to the religious literature during
these centuries are mentioned in paragraph 5 below.

4. Hinduism Composite. — The striking characteristic
of this period is found in the rise of a system which devel-
oped during subsequent centuries into modern Hinduism.
It is a composite product. " The preamble of Hinduism "
derived from the Vedas, Upanishads, and philosophical
works founded on them, is "that the one sole, self-exist-

58 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

ing Supreme Self, the only really existing Essence, the one
eternal Germ of all things, delights in infinite expansion,
in infinite manifestations of itself, in infinite creation, dis-
solution, and re-creation, through infinite varieties and
diversities of operation. , . . The very name ' Brahman"
given to the Eternal Essence, is expressive of this growth,
this expansion, this universal development and diffusion.
. . . It is only, however, by the practice of a kind of
universal toleration and receptivity — carried on through
more than two thousand years — that Hinduism has
arrived at its present condition. It has first borne with
and then accepted, and so to speak, digested and assimi-
lated something from all creeds. It has opened its doors
to all comers on the two conditions of admitting the spir-
itual supremacy of the Brahmans, and conforming to cer-
tain caste-rules about food, intermarriage, and professional
pursuits. In this manner it has adopted much of the fe-
tishism of the Negrito aborigines of India ; it has stooped
to the practices of various hill tribes, and has not scrupled
to encourage the adoration of the fish, the boar, the ser-
pent, rocks, stones, and trees; it has borrowed ideas from
th» various cults of the Dravidian races; and it may even
owe something to Christianity. Above all, it has appro-
priated nearly every doctrine of Buddhism, except its
atheism, its denial of the eternity of soul, and its leveling
of caste distinctions.'"

5. (a) Religious Literature — Puranas. — The litera-
ture which inculcates this new form of religion and which
suggests the Hindu characterization of the period, the " Pu-
ranic Age," is embodied in the Puranas, " Ancient Lore."
They were apparently preceded and followed by other com-
positions bearing this name, but the eighteen chief Puranas
seem to have been the product of this period and the cen-
turies immediately following. " Besides cosmogony they

■ Neuter from root brih, " to grow."
' Monier- Williams, Hinduism, pp. 86, 85.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 59

deal with mythical descriptions of the earth, the doctrine
of the cosmic ages, the exploits of ancient gods, saints, and
heroes, accounts of the Avatars of Vishnu, the genealogies
of the Solar and Lunar race of kings, and enumerations of
the thousand names of Vishnu or of Siva. They also con-
tain rules about the worship of the gods by means of pray-
ers, fastings, votive offerings, festivals, and pilgrimages.'"
The perusal of even a few extracts proves the appropriate-
ness of Professor Hopkins's statement : " In the Puranas,
while the trinity is acknowledged, religion is resolved
again into a sort of sectarian monotheism, where the
devotee seems to be in the midst of the squabbling horde
of temple priests, each fighting for his own idol. In the
calmer aspects of religion, apart from sectarian schism,
these writings offer, indeed, much that is of second rate
interest, but little that is of real value.'" And yet material
of this sort is regarded of such importance that the
Puranas run interminably on to the alleged extent of
1,600,000 lines 1'

(b) The Tantras. — The Tantras, the Bible of Sak-
tism, said to be sixty-four in number, probably took their
form in this period also; though part of them are of later
origin and all may have been greatly modified subse-
quently. They have been the foulest element in Hinduism
for a thousand years, and to-day, according to Sir Monier-
Williams, " a vast proportion of the inhabitants of India,
especially in Bengal, are guided in their daily life and
practices by Tantric teaching and are in bondage to the
doctrines inculcated in these writings.'" How silly and
obscene their teaching is may be faintly imagined from
the section devoted to Saktism in a later chapter.

(c) Sankara and Vedantism. — In striking con-

' Macdonrell, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 300.
•Hopkins, Religions of India, pp. 439, 440.
•Wilson, Preface to Vishnu Purana, p. xxiv.
* Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 184.

6o INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

trast to the corrupt phases of Hinduism set forth in the
Puranas and Tantras are the teachings of India's St.
Augustine, Sankara Acharya, who traversed the land, con-
troverting heresies and proclaiming his religious views.
While some regard him as having lived before the Chris-
tian era, it is most probable that he did his work in our
eighth or ninth century. In his commentaries on the
Vedanta Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita and the principal
Upanishads, he laid the foundations of present-day
Vedantism described later. Dying, some say at the early
age of thirty-two, he left behind him four important mon-
asteries where his doctrines were promulgated. " Un-
doubtedly Sankara was the very incarnation of strict
Brahmanism ; and if it be possible to name any one real
historical concrete personality as a typical representative
of Brahmanical doctrines, it is undeniable that we must
point to Sankara rather than to the legendary Vyasa, even
though the latter be the alleged author of the Vedanta
Sutra. Yet so utterly barren is India in both history and
biography, that very little is known of the life of perhaps
one of the greatest religious leaders she has ever pro-
duced.'"

6. Resultant Life of the Period. — Sir Richard Temple
admirably summarizes the life of these centuries of reli-
gious transition. " It produced many splendid fanes, the
ruins of which delight the modern observer. It was char-
acterized by a fantastic mythology and a somewhat sen-
suous idolatry. It produced, in addition to the old code
of Manu, a further set of regulations tinder the name of
Yajnavalkya. Minute ceremonial observance, varying for
every class, cramped the soul. Thus the spirit of the
people was enslaved, their sentiments were cramped, and
their thoughts awestruck. Their mind was turned to
superstitious requirements rather than to the practical
questions of public life. Their society was further en-

• Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 55.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 6l

feebled by the subjection of women. Maternal and con-
jugal influence must have existed, but in an irresponsible
way. Each one of the countless sections of the commu-
nity, each tribe or class, each cousinhood descending from
a common ancestor, within its narrow circle became
tenacious of its own traditions, guarding them against all
the world, and caring little for anything extraneous.
Hence arose the system of village communities, which was
consolidated and hardened by the recurring troubles of
the time. Each community was a brotherhood within its
village only, with cohesion like that of a square of infan-
try. This institution saved Hindu society during the con-
vulsions of the eleventh and succeeding centuries. But a
society thus constituted was manifestly a ready prey for
northern invaders. During the latter part of this era
there were apparently some internal revolutions among
the Hindus themselves.'"

Vn. Period of Mohammedan Rule, 1001-1761 a. d.

From the time of Mahmud of Ghazni's invasion in looi
and even before that date Indian annals become definite,
and the accuracy of modern history takes the place of the
guesses and the conflicting chronology that color its early
annals.

I. Character of Mohammedan Conquests. — A com-
mon misconception of the character of the Mohammedan
domination in India is removed by Sir William Hunter's
words: " The popular notion that India fell an easy prey
to the Musalmans is opposed to the historical facts.
Mohammedan rule in India consists of a series of inva-
sions and partial conquests, during eight centuries, from
Subuktigin's inroad in 977, to Ahmad Shah's tempest of
invasion in 1761 a. d. These invasions represent in In-
dian history the overflow of the nomad tribes of Central
'^ Qhatnbfrs's Encyclopaedia, vo). vi,, p. 117,

62 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Asia, towards the southeast ; as the Huns, Turks, the vari-
ous Tartar tribes disclose in early European annals the
westward movements from the same great breeding-ground
of nations. At no time was Islam triumphant throughout
the whole of India. Hindu dynasties always ruled over
large areas. At the height of the Mohammedan power,
the Hindu princes paid tribute, and sent agents to the
Imperial court. But even this modified supremacy of
Delhi did not last for 150 years (1560-1707). Before the
end of that brief period, the Hindus had begun the work
of re-conquest. The Hindu chivalry of Rajputana was
closing in upon Delhi from the south ; the religious con-
federation of the Sikhs was growing into a military power
on the northwest. The Marathas had combined the fight-
ing powers of the low-castes with the statesmanship of
the Brahmans, and were subjecting the Mohammedan
kingdoms throughout all India to tribute."'

2. Moslem Rulers. — The rulers of these seven and a
half centuries were of different nationalities. Of the eight
houses or dynasties, four were Turki, two were Afghan,
one was Sayyid, and one Mongol. All the invaders entered
via the Northwest Passes, and Delhi was the commonest
seat of power. The seven earlier dynasties possessed one
common characteristic, namely, a fanatical Mohammedan-
ism which caused them to look upon Indian races as infi-
dels and an abomination.

Tamerlane and Baber. — Individual mention cannot be
made of the many potentates who reigned during this
period. The most famous of them belonged to the Mogul
— Mongol — house of Timur, the last of the eight dynas-
ties. As early as the first quarter of the thirteenth cen-
tury, Genghis Khan had brought his Mongol hordes into
Northwestern India on a brief foray. In 1398-99 Timur,
better known as Tamerlane, " Timur, the Lame," con-
quered the territory between the Indus and the lower

" Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 32;}.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 63

Ganges, retiring from there to his capital Samarkand with
a fabulous amount of booty. Though he had proclaimed
himself emperor at Delhi, the title lapsed till his grandson
Baber revived it and became the first bearer of the famous
title, the Great Mogul.

Akhar the Great. — It was his grandson, Akbar the
Great, who in 1556 — two years before Queen Elizabeth
ascended England's throne — began his almost half-cen-
tury reign, which revealed him as perhaps the greatest
sovereign India ever had, as well as the greatest Asiatic
monarch of modern times. This great conqueror and civil
administrator of the Empire died in 1605, two years later
than Queen Elizabeth. This was the fifth year after the
British East India Company came into existence, and the
fourth from the day when the first English ships touched
India's shores. The architecture of his noble mausoleum
near Agra, which is adorned with mingled Buddhist and
Arabesque designs, testifies to the Catholic faith of one
who was born a Mohammedan. Lord Tennyson's poem,
Akbar's Dream, reminds one of Sir William Hunter's
prose: "Akbar's conciliation of the Hindus, and his inter-
est in their literature and religion, made him many enemies
among the pious Musalmans. His favorite wife was a
Rajput princess ; another of his wives is said to have been
a Christian; and he ordered his son. Prince Murad, when
a child, to take lessons in Christianity. On Fridays —
the Sabbath of Islam — he loved to collect professors of
many religions around him. He listened impartially to
the arguments of the Brahman and the Musalman, the
Parsee, the ancient fire-worshiper, the Jew, the Jesuit, and
the skeptic philosopher. The history of his life, the
Akbar-namah, records such a conference, in which the
Christian priest Redif disputed with a body of Moham-
medan mullas before an assembly of the doctors of all.
religions and is given the best of the argument.'"
* Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 330,

64 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

3. Maratha Confederacy. — While the last of the
Moguls held a titular position as late as 1857, and though
Mohammedans to-day constitute more than one- fifth of
India's population, Islam's temporal power fell before Hin-
duism as represented by the Marathas, who flourished
from 1634 to 1888. They constituted a low-caste Hindu
confederacy directed against the Mohammedan domination
and had as their head a hereditary Brahman chief, whose
capital was at Poona in the Deccan. This confederation
was the principal power when England appeared in force
upon the scene. At that time its civilization was of a
lower order than any since the Vedic-Aryan times, and
it gave rise to fresh evils, such as thuggee.

4. Influence of Mohammedan Rule. — The impress made
upon India by its Mohammedan rulers was a mingling of
good and evil. Again we quote Sir Richard Temple. " The
Mohammedan system inculcated simplicity of faith and
morals. It was bitterly opposed to idolatry and was at
first iconoclastic, but in the end it extended toleration to
Hinduism. It fairly respected the landed property and
endowments of that religion. It introduced some fresh
ideas, and imparted some breadth of ideas generally, and
some improved notions of statesmanship and organization.
Otherwise it produced but little effect upon Hindu civili-
zation. It imposed its own official language and its own
criminal law, but it maintained civil laws and customs for
the most part. It undertook no public instruction, save
that which was Moslem. It planted Moslems all about the
country, but did not convert the indigenous people in large
numbers anywhere except in one quarter. That exception
was eastern Bengal, where the inhabitants embraced the
Moslem faith, but how this came about is a question not set-
tled. It has been conjectured that Buddhism survived here
without caste, and that the inhabitants were not unwilling
to adopt Mohammedanism as a casteless faith. Be this as
it may, the eastern Bengal population has multiplied till

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 65

it amounts to nearly twenty-five millions, and is the largest
Mohammedan people now existing in any one country.
Finally, the Mohammedan power endured so long as it
was recruited from trans-Himalayan regions and the hardy
North; it soon lost its strength when its supporters came
to dwell generation after generation in the hot country
below the mountains.'"

VIII. Continental European Contact,

I. The Portuguese Rule, 14^8 to i8th Century. — The
Portuguese were the first Europeans to enter India in any
considerable number. Though Columbus in 1492 desired
to reach the peninsula in Spanish bottoms by a new west-
ward route, he found a better land than India ; and it was
reserved for the Portuguese, Vasco da Gama, to double
the Cape of Good Hope, and after an eleven months' voy-
age, to cast anchor off the city of Calicut, on May 20,
1498. For exactly a century — from 1500 to 1600 — the
Portuguese were supreme in the eastern seas and estab-
lished a maritime empire, extending from Japan and the
Spice Islands to the Red Sea and the Cape of Good Hope.
" But they never commanded the necessary resources,
either of military strength or personal character, for its
maintenance and defence. They were also in another way
unprepared for the commerce of which they thus obtained
the control. Their national character had been formed
in their secular contests with the Moors, and above all
things they were knights errant and crusaders, who looked
on every pagan as an enemy at once of Portugal and of
Christ. It is impossible for any one who has not read
the contemporary narratives of their discoveries and con-
quests to conceive the grossness of the superstition and
the cruelty with which the whole history of their explora-
tion and subjugation of the Indies is stained. Albuquerque

i Chambers's Encyclopaedia, vol. vj,, p. ii8,

66 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

alone endeavored to conciliate the good will of the natives
and to live in friendship with the Hindu princes, who were
naturally better pleased to have the Portuguese, as gov-
erned by him, for their neighbors and allies than the
Mohammedans whom he had expelled or subdued. The jus-
tice and magnanimity of this rule did as much to extend
and confirm the power of the Portuguese in the East as
the courage and success of his military achievements ; and
in such veneration was his memory held by the Hindus,
and even by the Mohammedans, in Goa that they were
accustomed to repair to his tomb and there utter their com-
plaints, as if in the presence of his shade, and call upon
God to deliver them from the tyranny of his successors.'"

Portuguese Decay. — The union of the Portuguese
crown with that of Spain in 1580 ruined Portuguese
supremacy, and Spain's enemies, the Dutch and English,
preyed upon Portuguese commerce as well. The Mara-
thas on land completed the work of devastation, so that
with the sack of Bassein in 1739, their power ended. To-
day the Portuguese possess only 1,558 square miles of
Indian territory — about half as large again as Rhode
Island — in three sections on the western coast with a
population of 572,290, many of whom are descendants of
the early Portuguese settlers. Their European names and
religious faith are about the only features differentiating
them from the Hindus, whom they resemble in color and
habits of life. The Portuguese half-castes on British ter-
ritory are, as a rule, a thriftless, feeble class.

2. The Dutch, 1602-1824. — The Dutch were the first
formidable rivals of the Portuguese in India, where their
interests were represented by the Dutch East India Com-
pany. During the seventeenth century they were the fore-
most maritime power in the world. Their Asiatic capi-
tals, Amboyna and Batavia in the Malay Archipelago,
were not so exclusively devoted to the development of

'■Encyclopaedia Briiannica, vol. xii., p. 797, 9th ed.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 6"^

India; yet between the years 1661 and 1669 they added to
their own colonies there all the early settlements of the
Portuguese on the Malabar Coast, as well as St. Thome
and Macassar. Their short-sighted commercial policy,
which staked all on an unjust monopoly of the spice trade,
and their great cruelty toward commercial rivals, led to
the loss of their supremacy. The company's death-knell
"was sounded by Clive when, in 1759, he attacked the
Dutch at Chinsurah, both by land and sea, and forced
them to an ignominious capitulation.'"

3. The Danes, 1616-1845. — Though the two Danish
settlements founded in 1616 by the Danish East India
Company at Tranquebar and Serampore, which were pur-
chased by the English in 1845, were never of great com-
mercial or political importance, they have a large place in
the history of Protestant missions, as will be seen. Other
settlements were Porto Novo, Eddova, and Holcheri.

4. The French, i6;r4. — Five East Indian Companies
were formed by the French, the first in 1604; yet the
earlier ones were mere trading schemes with no perma-
nent settlements in India. Not until the last of these was
founded in 1664, with the intention of rivaling the English
and Dutch commercial achievements, did France have a
strong base at Pondicherri, acquired in 1674. Two later
governors of French factories and possessions, Dumas and
Dupleix, " first conceived the idea of founding an Indian
empire upon the ruins of the Mogul dynasty, and for a
time the French nation successfully contended with the
English for the supremacy of the East.'" The treaty of
Paris, 1763, conceded to England what the genius of
Dupleix had earlier secured for France. By the later
treaties of 1814 and 1815 she to-day possesses five sepa-
rate dependencies in India, with an area of a little less than
200 square miles, having a population of 273,000.

• Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 426.

• Ibid., p. 426.

68 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

5. The Germans, i^ss-iyp^. — The German or Ostend
Company, incorporated in 1722, was far more substantial
than Carlyle pictures it in his satirical account of the Em-
pire, Karl IV. and his " Third Shadow Hunt.'" Its two
settlements were regarded with hatred and fear by the
English, Dutch, and French, and returned to the promoters
a very handsome profit. Jealousies of the powers, diplo-
matic contests in Europe, and native opposition fomented
by European courts, led to their final extinction in 1793.

6. Minor Attempts. — Less important attempts, partly
abortive, were made by Prussia in 1753 and by Sweden
in 1731, the latter being the last nation of Europe to
engage in maritime trade with India, the company having
been reorganized in 1806.

7. Causes of Continental Failure. — The nations of con-
tinental Europe, whose main object was a selfish one, that
of territorial expansion and commercial aggrandizement,
failed to largely benefit or affect India. The causes of
failure are thus stated by the greatest authority on India :
" The Portuguese failed, because they attempted a task
altogether beyond their strength — the conquest and the
conversion of India. Their memorials are the epic of the
Lusiads, the death-roll of the Inquisition, an indigent half-
caste population, and three decayed patches of territory
on the Bombay coast. The Dutch failed on the Indian
continent, because their trade was based on a monopoly
which it was impossible to maintain, except by great and
costly armaments. Their monopoly, however, still flour-
ishes in their isolated island dominion of Java. The
French failed, in spite of the brilliancy of their arms and
the genius of their generals, from want of steady support
at home. Their ablest Indian servants fell victims to a
corrupt court and a careless people. Their surviving set-
tlements disclose that talent for careful administration,

' Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, 3rd ed,, vol. i., pp.
S55-5S7-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 69

which, but for French monarchs and their ministers and
their mistresses, might have been displayed throughout a
wide Indian Empire. The German Companies, whether
Austrian or Prussian, were sacrificed to the diplomatic
necessities of their royal patrons in Europe, and to the
dependence of the German States in the wars of the last
century upon the maritime powers. But the Germans have
never abandoned the struggle. The share in the Indian
trade which Prussian King and Austrian Kaiser failed to
grasp in the eighteenth century, has been gradually
acquired by German merchants in our own day.'"

IX. The British in India

1. Early English Attempts. — Early attempts of Eng-
land to reach India were directed to the Northwest Pas-
sage around the Arctic shores of America. Though un-
successful, John Cabot and his sons discovered thereby
Newfoundland, and sailed as far south as Virginia. Later
English attempts to reach tropical India via the Arctic
have left on American maps the names of Frobisher,
Davis, Hudson, and Baffin. Another fruitless attempt to
reach the same goal was through the Arctic waters of
Europe and Asia, an attempt that ended at Archangel in
Russia. Thomas Stephens, an Oxford Jesuit, was the first
modern Englishman to reach the Indian peninsula in 1579.
He was followed by a few of his fellow-countrymen, but
it was not until 1699, when the Dutch raised the price of
pepper from 3s. to 6s. and 8s., that indignant London mer-
chants arose in protest and succeeded on the last day —
or last day but one — of the seventeenth century in
launching the English East India Company.

2. East India Company, 1600-185^ — Overcoming Ri-
vals. — This greatest factor in India's modern history,
while trading to a limited extent with India from the

' Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 440.

70 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

first, nevertheless centered its interests in the East Indian
Archipelago. Being driven out by the bitter and cruel
opposition of the Dutch in 1664, it began in earnest to found
settlements on the Indian seaboard. This led to serious
conflicts, both diplomatic and martial, with the Dutch, Por-
tuguese, and French interests. One after another these
powers gave way before British diplomacy and arms until
the last Occidental foe yielded with the capitulation of the
hill fortress of Gingi in 1761. " That day terminated the
long hostilities between two rival European powers in
Coromandel, and left not a single ensign of the French
nation avowed by the authority of its government in any
part of India.'"

Eight Makers of British India. — But a more serious
task confronting the Company was that of overcoming the
opposition of native rulers and their armies and the devel-
oping of their territory when acquired. This extension of
territory and assumption of power both on the part of the
Company and later by the Government were not neces-
sarily due to greed, but were often demanded by moral
obligations. Eight names stand forth with a special promi-
nence between 1757, the date of the momentous battle of
Plassey, and 1857, when the Sepoy mutiny ended in the
passing of the Company. Robert Clive had reached Mad-
ras penniless to enter the service of " John Company " as
a writer. He was moved to suicide by the drudgery of
such a life, but the repeated failure of his pistol to do its
work extorted the exclamation : " It appears I am destined
for something; I will live." And he did live to be known
to the Hindus as Sabat Jung, " the daring in war," and to
the Occident as the hero of Plassey, and the founder of
Britain's Indian Empire. Warren Hastings preserved for
England during a world crisis the Empire which Clive had
founded. The seven long years of his remarkable trial, so

' Orme, History of Military Transactions in Indostan, Madras Re-
print, vol. ii., p. 733.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 7I

well known through Macaulay's untrustworthy essay,
ended in acquittal, and proved the greatness of his genius
and the inestimable value of his Indian administration. In
the words of H. G. Keene : " It was felt by those per-
sons who knew or cared about the matter at all that the
alleged errors of Hastings were overbalanced by great
public services. He had prevailed in war ; he had left Ben-
gal at peace ; he had organized the administration in all its
branches; he had fostered learning; above all, he had
founded an empire which no one thought of abandoning.'"
Charles Cornwallis, whose defeat at Yorktown proved as
ruinous to the British cause in America as his Governor-
Generalship of India was of value to the Company and to
England, extended the dominion founded and preserved by
Clive and Hastings. Lord Wellesley went to India " in-
spired with Imperial projects which were destined to
change the map of the country. , . . From the first he laid
down as his guiding principle, that the English must be
the one paramount power in India, and that native princes
could only retain the personal insignia of sovereignty by
surrendering their political independence. The history of
India since his time has been but the gradual development
of this policy, which received its finishing touch when
Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on the
first of January, 1877.'" The Marquis of Hastings, who
had prepared himself for his Indian Governor-Generalship
by fighting in the Revolutionary War from Bunker Hill
to Charleston, succeeded in converting the brave moun-
taineers of Nepal into the staunchest of British allies; and
later in 1818 his forces crushed out the Maratha confed-
eracy, _the last opponents, and absorbed their territory.
The map" of India, as changed by Lord Hastings, remained
unaltered until 1848, and it was his proudest boast that he
and Sir John Malcolm " had conferred the blessings of

• Chambers's Encyclopaedia, vol. v., p. 581,
'Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 464.

72 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

peace and good government upon millions who had
groaned under the exactions of the Mahrattas and Pin-
daris." Other makers of India were Lord Amherst, by
whom the dominion was extended into Lower Burma in
1825, and Lord William Bentinck, upon whose Calcutta
statue are inscribed Macaulay's words : " He abolished
cruel rites; he effaced humiliating distinctions; he gave
liberty to the expression of public opinion; his constant
study it was to elevate the intellectual and moral charac-
ter of the nations committed to his charge." Lord Dal-
housie, the greatest of Indian proconsuls, added four
extensive kingdoms, besides a number of principalities, to
the Queen's dominions. More important, however, than
territorial acquisitions, which were secured partly against
his will, were those internal improvements and the aboli-
tion of manifold wrongs which marked his beneficent
rule.

Sepoy Mutiny. — In 1857 occurred the Sepoy Mutiny,
just a century after the battle of Plassey and 200 years
from the time when the Maratha struck a deadly blow at
the Mohammedan power. Its varied causes — prominent
among which were the conquests of Dalhousie and his
introduction of the elements of modern civilization, sup-
posed by the Hindus to be inimical to their best interests
— indicate the breaking up of the old order and the com-
ing of the new. Despite the horrors of that time —
strangely parallel to those of the Chinese Boxer Uprising
in 1900 — the event marks an epoch in India's history.
With it came the dissolution of the East India Company,
and the open assumption in 1858 by the English crown of
powers that had been really accumulating with each
renewal of the Company's charter and the consequent
necessity for increasing support by royal troops.

3. India's Expansion Since 185/. — During the past
forty-five years Britain's power and influence in India
have constantly increased. On January i, 1877, Queen

Mausoleum of Akbar the Great, near Agra

Cawnpore Memorial Well — Sepoy Mutiny

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS 73

Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on the historic
ridge overlooking the Mogul capital of Delhi. The last
portion of Burma remaining unconquered became part of
the Indian Empire in 1886, and the British sphere of influ-
ence has been extended northwest to include a good share
of Baluchistan and a fringe of Afghanistan. While the
native states still contain two-fifths of India's territory and
more than one-fifth of its population, their relation to
British rule is a close and helpful one and they share, to
a considerable extent, in the advantages accruing to sub-
jects on British territory.

4. Native Views of British Rule. — What the Hindus
have become under British rule will be seen in subsequent
chapters. Suffice it here to give the opinion of an enlight-
ened Hindu leader, Babu S. N. Banerji : " As a represen-
tative of the educated community of India, — and I am
entitled to speak on their behalf and in their name, — I
may say that we regard British rule in India as a dispen-
sation of Divine Providence. England is here for the
highest and the noblest purposes of history. She is here
to rejuvenate an ancient people, to infuse into them the
vigor, the virility, and the robustness of the West, and so
pay off the long-standing debt, accumulating since the
morning of the world, which the West owes to the East.
We are anxious for the permanence of British rule in
India, not only as a guarantee for stability and order, but
because with it are bound up the best prospects of our
political advancement. . . . Marvelous as have been the
industrial achievements of the Victorian Era in India, they
sink into insignificance when compared with the great
moral trophies which distinguish that epoch. Roads have
been constructed ; rivers have been spanned ; telegraph and
railway lines have been laid down; time and space have
been annihilated; Nature and the appliances of Nature
have been made to minister to the wants of man. But
these are nothing when compared to the bold, decisive,

74 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Statesmanlike measures which have been taken in hand for
the intellectual, the moral, and the political regeneration
of my countrymen. Under English influences the torpor
of ages has been dissipated; the pulsations of a new life
have been communicated to the people ; an inspiriting sense
of public duty has been evolved, the spirit of curiosity has
been stirred, and a moral revolution, the most momentous
in our annals, culminating in the transformation of na-
tional ideals and aspirations, has been brought about.'"

* Jones, India's Problem, pp. 51, 52.

Ill

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE

The preceding chapter has furnished the historical
background and interpretation of what will here be said of
the peoples and life of India to-day. Their diverse origin
and environment make it almost impossible to speak in
anything more than a general way of their character and
life. The reader must refer to accounts of the different
races for definite statements concerning them.

I. Some Facts Based on the Census

I. Census of ipoi. — One of the most remarkable
achievements in census taking ever recorded was accom-
plished during the month of March, 1901, when a vast
army of enumerators learned the leading facts concerning
the 294,361,056^ inhabitants of India. It is one of many
indications of Britain's superb organization of the forces
in her peninsular Empire.

Comparisons. — This population, excelled only by that
of China, is two and a third times that of the Russian
Empire, and nearly four times as large as the population
of the United States. It is almost exactly seven times as
great as that of the British Isles. One-fifth of the inhabi-
tants of the globe are consequently under consideration
when one studies India, a fact that should be impressed
indelibly upon the Christian's memory.

' Statesman's Year-Book, IQ03, p. I35- Unless otherwise stated the
India statistics of the present chapter will be quoted from this source.

75

"jS INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

2. Distribution. — British and Native Possessions. —
Roughly speaking, these multitudinous millions are dis-
tributed between the native states and the British
provinces in the ratio of one to four, the states having a
population of 62,461,549, wrhile the British provinces have
231,899,507 inhabitants. About four-fifths of the people
of India are thus directly amenable to English authority,
while the remaining fifth is largely influenced through
English laws and friendly supervision.

Urban and Rural Distribution. — Even more important
from the missionary point of view are the facts concerning
urban and rural distribution. In 1901 there was a popula-
tion of 29,244,221 in the 2,148 towns classed as urban, 570
of which contained less than 5,000 inhabitants each. This
means that more than nine-tenths of the people live in vil-
lages and hamlets and that there were but few large cities
— only thirty-one — of over 100,000 inhabitants in 1901.

Comparative Density. — The average density of popula-
tion for the entire Empire in 1901 was 167 per square mile,
while that of Ontario and Quebec in the same year was
6.76 per square mile, and the population of the British
Isles was a little more than twice as dense as in India —
343.9 per square mile. In 1900 the United States had 21.4
inhabitants per square mile, about one-eighth of the
density of India's population.

Differing Indian Densities. — The native states are less
than half as populous as the British provinces, the average
per square mile in native territory being ninety-two, while
in the British provinces it is 213. The most populous re-
gions are those of the Ganges valley and the coast dis-
tricts of the Deccan, while the most sparsely settled sec-
tions are in the northwestern part of India. The density
of Bengal province, including its feudatory states, is 494
per square mile, while Bengal proper has 588 as compared
with Rhode Island's 407, England and Wales' 558, and
Belgium's 589 per square mile. Hen?? next to Belgium,

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE TJ

the Nile valley, and the great plain of China, Bengal
proper is the most densely peopled section of the globe of
any considerable size.

3. Foreigners in the Empire. — India, unlike South
America and Africa, is a mission field that will never be
largely affected by accession to its population from other
lands. So far as numbers are concerned they are a negligi-
ble quantity. Thus in 1901 the total number of persons
not born in India, including the French and Portuguese
possessions, was only 641,854, or one foreigner to every
459 of the population. Yet it is true that this small per-
centage is vastly more influential than numbers would sug-
gest. They are India's rulers, teachers, and captains of in-
dustry and commerce. Omitting all reference to the mis-
sionaries, and aside from the political, industrial, and com-
mercial relations of these immigrants which are usually
helpful, their presence is often an evil. Not a few of them
have exerted an unfortunate influence, especially in in-
creasing intemperance.

4. Emigration. — Thus far emigration has not affected
to any appreciable degree the population of India. Few of
the higher classes leave their country, as the obstacles due
to caste regulations are very serious. Coolie emigration
is likewise small, averaging during the years 1897-1901
only 13,874 per annum. Most of these go to the British
colonies in Africa, the South Seas, and the West Indies,
where the moral influences are not much better than in
their native land; hence on their return they do not im-
prove its morale, nor are they otherwise helpful as a re-
sult of their wider contact with the world. It is not prob-
able that India will ever become through emigration a
great factor in the life of other Asiatic countries, or of any
portion of the globe. The Hindus, therefore, are not as
strategic a people to win as are the Japanese and Chinese,
either as apostles of a new religion, gr a§ propagators fif
their own faith.

78 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

5. Vital Statistics. — Some particulars are called for as
to the vital statistics of India. A comparison of census
data for 1891 and 1901 shows a net increase in the Em-
pire of 7,046,385. There was an addition during these
years of nearly eleven millions in the British provinces and
a decrease of nearly four millions in the native states.
Famine and plague have been unusually severe; yet even
bearing these in mind an increase of about two and a half
per cent, in a decade is small compared with a gain during
the same years of 9.9 per cent, in the British Isles, from
which a large emigration was going on.

Prevalent Diseases. — An examination of the official
list of diseases causing death during the years 1882-1890
indicates that by far the largest proportion of serious cases
to be treated by the medical missionary is the result of
fevers. Cholera comes next, followed by bowel com-
plaints, smallpox, and injuries. All other fatal cases con-
stituted only about one-fifth of those in the entire list.'
More than a quarter of those born die during their first
year, the great mortality of infants being largely due to
improper sanitation and insufficient nourishment.

II. The Races of India

I. 'Some Statistics. — The last Indian census divides
those races having a population of over one million into
three great language groups, namely, the Indo-Chinese,
originally inhabiting the northern and northeastern bor-
ders and numbering 11.71 millions; the Dravido-Munda,
originally of the Deccan, with 59.69 millions ; and the Indo-
Aryan, originally of the northern half of India, with 221.15
millions. While language is not always a safe criterion
for racial variations, especially when different peoples
have been living beside one another for thousands of years,
it will serve for the purpose now in mind.

•Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 771.

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 7g

2. Physical Qualities. — The appearance of these race
stocks varies with environment and occupation, as well as
because of fundamental racial peculiarities. Even in a
given village differences will be noted that would put to
the blush any attempt at a scientific description of its in-
habitants. Perhaps nothing more definite can be stated
than what Sir Richard Temple has compressed into a few
lines. Physical traits " vary together with race and cli-
mate. The stature is often tall in the North, and short in
the South — very much as in Europe. Strength does not
depend on height, of course. The Nepalese are short, so
are the Mahrattas; both are strong. As a rule, strength
with courage is found more in the North than in the South,
but least perhaps in the Gangetic delta. Bengal is the only
large province that furnishes no recruits to the army.
Physical endurance, the power of making protracted bodily
exertion with but scanty sustenance, is perceptible every-
where ; in some places it is extraordinary, and rarely to be
equalled in any country. As a point of comparison, a native
has hardly half the strength or nervous force of a Euro-
pean, perhaps not more than one-third; his work com-
paratively would be in the same proportion.'" Professor
Ratzel gives a somewhat more definite picture of the Indo-
Aryans, who constitute more than seven-tenths of the en-
tire population. "The Hindu of Aryan type is brown,
from dark to coffee-colored, darker as a rule in low than
in high castes; of medium height; with sleek black hair,
handsome oval face, thin, often slightly curved, nose;
beard and hair less close than in Europeans. The eyes are
large and almond-shaped, the lips pronounced, the chin
weak. The form, especially in the women, is often very
beautiful, but the legs are weakened by long continuance
in a squatting posture. The skull is a fine oval of small or
medium size, the forehead not strongly marked. Hindus
of higher castes in European dress most resemble Greeks
^Chambers's Encyclofaedia, vol. vi., p. 104.

8o INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

or Southern Italians. It is difficult sharply to separate
this type, for unknown blendings cause it to vary in a
Semitic, mulatto, or Malay direction.'"

3. Mental Caliber. — Estimates of the intellectual abil-
ity of the Hindus vary from that of slight respect to pe-
riods of highest panegyric. Abbe Dubois thus writes:
" The mental faculties of the Hindus appear to be as
feeble as their physique. . . . There are, of course, very
many sensible, capable persons amongst the Hindus, who
possess marked abilities and talents, and who by education
have developed the gifts with which nature has endowed
them; but during the 300 years or so that Europeans have
been established in the country no Hindu, so far as I know,
has ever been found to possess really transcendent genius.'"
At the other extreme, place this opinion of Max-Miiller :
" If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most
fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply
pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found
solutions of some of them which well deserve the atten-
tion even of those who have studied Plato and Kant, I
should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from
what literature we here in Europe, — we who have been
nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and
Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, — may draw
that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our
inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more uni-
versal, in fact more truly human, a life not for this life
only, but a transfigured and eternal life, again I should
point to India.'" The truth lies between these two quota-
tions — nearer the estimate of the Abbe, certainly, than
that of the Oxford professor. Ignorance and a low men-
tality are inevitable in the lower castes who have for ages
been deprived of opportunities for study and whose lives

'■ Ratzel, A History of Mankind, vol. iii., p. 358.

' Dubois, Hindu Manners, Custotns and Ceremonies, p. 334

f Max-Miiller, India, What Can It Teach Ust p. 24.

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 8l

have been spent in a lowly or disgusting employment with-
in the limits of a few square miles. Similarly, the Brah-
mans ought to be intellectual as they have been the teach-
ers and scholars of India for milleniums. Heredity acts in
their favor, just as it militates against the lower castes.

4. National Characteristics. — Professor Ratzel re-
gards the race as a whole as wanting in spirit, which so
bends and adapts itself as to lose energy. He adds : " This
trait, want of spirit and laziness, increases, as we go east
and south, to the point of apathy. The Indian's virtues
are more negative than positive. His best points lie in the
direction of power to endure and forego; his gentleness,
however, does not exclude outbreaks of savage cruelty,
which together with his despotic severity towards human
beings stands in sharp contrast with the kindness towards
animals enjoined by his religion. Very similar is his
northern brother, but hardier and more warlike. Every-
where in North India we find warlike races, particularly
in the west. Southern India, too, once had the warlike and
chivalrous caste of the Nairs, who have now degenerated
to policemen. The Kallers of the Carnatic inherited the
qualities of bold robbers and fighters ; and a part of them
were distinguished for their loyalty as ' castle-warders.'
They are people who are betrothed over a sword. Even
the primitive stocks have not all descended to the lowest
stage in renunciation of self-respect and loss of resisting
power.'" A paragraph from Sir Richard Temple's article
above referred to adds other important particulars. " Foe
the upper and middle classes, domestic affection, munifi-
cence, tenacious adherence to custom, veneration with awe
leading to superstition, love of external nature, an inclina-
tion for abstract meditation, mental acuteness and subtlety,
litigiousness, shrewdness of observation; for the humbler
classes, temperance, patience, docility, charitableness to the
indigent, endurance, fortitude under disaster, and industry.
> Ratzel, 4 History of Manktnd, vol. iii,, p. 365.

82 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

The qualities termed principle and public spirit in Western
phrase cannot be predicated of any class. Deep attach-
ment to the ancestral religion takes the place of patriotism.
' Dharm ' to the Hindu, and ' Din ' to the Mohammedan,
mean virtue under a religious sanction. In justice to the
women, it must be said that, despite their subjection and
seclusion, they have shown courageous fortitude in times
of danger and charitable munificence when endowed with
means.'"

5. Wild Tribes. — Those peoples who most interest for-
eigners because of their nearness to nature or lack of culti-
vation are the small non-Aryan tribes and nationalities
which do not figure largely in accounts of the country.
Among these are the isolated Andaman Islanders in the
Bay of Bengal, who, when first met by the English, were
naked cannibals of great ferocity. They daubed them-
selves with red earth and in times of mourning donned a
suit of olive-colored mud. To express friendship or joy
they made a noise like weeping. Their names were of a
common gender and were given before birth. As for re-
ligion, their sole conception of a god was that of an evil
spirit who spread diseases. Though after half a century
of English rule they have become somewhat civilized, they
are yet sunk in deepest degradation.

Anatnalai Hill Tribes. — In Southern Madras on the
Anamalai Hills there is a whole series of broken tribes.
Hamlets of long-haired Puliars live on jungle products,
mice, or any small animals that they can catch, and wor-
ship demons. The thick-lipped, small-bodied Kaders are
a remnant of a higher race, who file the front teeth of the
upper jaw as a marriage ceremony.

The Leaf-wearers of Orissa. — In the tributary state of
Orissa is the interesting tribe of Juangs or Patuas, literally
the "leaf-wearers." Their women formerly wore no cloth-
ing, their only vestige of covering being a few strings of
• Chambers's Encyclopaedia, vol. vi., p. 104.

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 83

beads around the waist with bunches of leaves attached.
Until quite lately they have had no knowledge of the
metals, but instead used flint weapons, thus representing
the Stone Age in our own day. Sir William Hunter quotes
this statement concerning their habitations : " Their huts
are among the smallest that human beings ever deliberately
constructed as dwellings. They measure about six feet by
eight. The head of the family and all the females huddle
together in this one shell, not much larger than a dog ken-
nel.'" Other peoples quite as interesting are living outside
the pale of Christian interests, though efforts are being
made to reach them by various missions.

6. Wild Tribes vs. Hindus. — The advantages and dis-
advantages of missionary labor among the wild tribes as
contrasted with those for the civilized races are brought
out in the following statement concerning the difference
between the Hindus and these tribes, "(i) The Hindus
have division of caste; the aborigines have no caste. (2)
The Hindu widows do not remarry; the widows of the
aborigines do remarry, mostly taking the younger brothers
of their former husbands. (3) The Hindus venerate the
cow and abstain from beef ; the aborigines feed on all flesh
alike. (4) The Hindus abstain from intoxicating drinks;
the aborigines delight in them, and even their religious
ceremonies are not complete without them. (5) The Hin-
dus prepare their own food, or take only what has been
prepared by a higher caste ; the aborigines partake of food
prepared by any one. (6) The Hindus do not shed blood
habitually, but no ceremony of the aborigines is complete
without the shedding of blood. (7) The Hindus have a
caste of priests; the aborigines select their priests out of
those particularly skilled in magic, sorcery, or divination,
or in curing diseases. (8) The Hindus burn their dead;
the aborigines mostly bury their dead. (9) The Hindu
civil institutes are municipal; those of the aborigines are
• Kncyclopatiia Britannica, vol. xii., p. 777.

84

INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

patriarchal. (lo) The Hindus have known letters,
science, and the art of writing for more than three thou-
sand years; while the aborigines are now, at least,
illiterate.'"

III. Languages and Literature

1. Statistics. — The languages spoken in 1901 by a
larger number of people than a million are eighteen.' Ten
years before there were no less than 150 different tongues
that were regarded as worthy of individual mention in the
census tables. As the foot-note indicates, in 1901 about
three in every ten spoke Hindi or Hindustani. The States-
man's Year-Book remarks that a man knowing ordinary
Hindustani could make himself understood in most parts
of India, a statement tempered by the late Census Com-
missioner, J. A. Baines' assertion " that, what with real
differences of language and local dialects of peculiar
vocabulary or pronunciation, the native of any part of In-
dia cannot go many miles beyond his birth-place without
finding himself at a loss in communicating with his fel-
low."° Le Bon declares even more despairingly that if
one wishes to be understood in every part of India, before
starting on his tour he must know 240 languages and 300
dialects.

2. Linguistic Facts — Sanskrit. — Though it is no longer
a spoken language, — if indeed it ever was, — it is a help to
an understanding of the Aryan vernaculars, which are

^ Hurst, Indika, pp. 124, 125.

^ Languages and Population Speaking Them in 1901, Expressed in

Millions:

LANGUAGES

POP.

LANGUAGES

POP-

LANGUAGES

POP.

Hindi

87.14

Rajasthani

10.92

Santali . . .

1-79

Bengali

44.62

Kanarese .

■ 10.37

W. Pahari . .

1. 71

Telugu

. 20.70

Gujarati

9.93

Assamese . .

I-3S

Marathi

. . 18.24

Burmese

7-47

Central Pahari

1.27

Punjabi

• 17-07

Malayalam

6.03

Pushtu . . .

1.22

Tamil .

16.53

Sindhi . .

3.01

Gondi . . .

1. 12

« India,

Ceylon, etc.

P- 3-

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 85

spoken by about sixty-five per cent, of the people of the
Empire. The great body of modern Indian speech is made
up of words similar in nature or origin to the correspond-
ing ones in Sanskrit; while in the vocabulary of religion,
philosophy, and abstract ideas, identical terms are im-
ported from that language.' Even Tamil, a Dravidian
tongue, is said to contain forty per cent, of Sanskrit."
Apart from the value of this tongue as containing most
of the sacred books and as giving prestige to the mission-
ary who has mastered it, it is an actual aid to language
study, particularly in Northern India.

Hindi and Hindustani. — The language most widely
spoken and ranking first among Indian vernaculars in
strengfth and dignity is Hindi, with its cognate form of
speech known as Hindustani, or Urdu. It prevails through
most of Northern India, except in the border regions.
Through the early Mohammedan conquerors in the North
Persian and Arabic were introduced, while the conquered
used Hindi. The constant mingling of the races, partic-
ularly in the camps, modified each form of speech and re-
sulted in a composite known as Urdu, — " camp " lan-
guage, — or Hindustani.

English. — Though twenty-five Indian languages are na-
tive to a larger number than is English, it is nevertheless
the language of the Government and of the higher educa-
tion. Being acquired from literature that is largely classi-
cal and from foreign instructors who are purists to a large
degree, or else from native teachers who have acquired it
in the way described, the better educated have an English
pronunciation and vocabulary that evoke admiration. Of
course, those who merely dabble with the language seem to
be speaking pidgin English, as they say towelee for towel,
buckus for box, Markeen for American, etc. The semi-
philosophical character of Indian students, as they study

* Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 397, 398.
'Principal Nations of India, p. 124.

86 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

English, is reflected in the following definitions of vice
and beauty, found in an examination paper of a student of
Madras University. "Vice. — Whatever may be the vices,
they still have outwardly some mark of virtue. Beauty. —
Some girls buy the powder at bazaar to rub their faces
with it, so that they may look more beautiful. By so do-
ing old men also appear young, which is a work of miracle
in nature, and those who desire to be beautiful wore curled,
snaky hair of another woman who is dead. They who
wear most of it are heavy physically and morally light.'"

3. Vernacular Literature. — While English will ever
increase in prevalence and influence, the great work of
missions must always be accomplished through the vernac-
ulars. With each year the native press is increasing its
output and consequent power. During 1901 the number of
vernacular newspapers published was 774 in nineteen lan-
guages or dialects. The daily having the largest circula-
tion was the Gurakhi of Bombay with about 5,000 copies
per issue, while the weekly standing foremost was the
Dasumati of Calcutta with 17,000 copies. In 1900-1 there
were in India 2,198 presses at work; and in addition to
1,146 newspapers and periodicals — including English —
which were printed, 8,036 books were published. Of these
6,807 were in Indian languages.'

Need of Better Literature. — With the fifteen million
readers in India to-day, the need of a higher grade of ver-
nacular literature is made evident by the considerations
urged by Dr. Jones. " The books which the Hindus have
published in their vernaculars, and which alone are acces-
sible to the people, are low in their tone and debasing in
their morality, even when they are not anti-Christian and
infidel in their aim and spirit. There is great need that
we supplant the unworthy, trivial, obscene books which
find currency among the natives, by a wholesome, pure and

* Hurst, Indika, p. 362.

" Statesman's Year-Book, 1903, p. 143,

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 87

elevating Christian literature. The minds of the people of
that land are poisoned, beyond anything that we realize, by
that debasing literature which is the product of their own
faith and legends.

Infidel Writings. — " The enemies of our faith are ac-
tive in India. Anti-Christian and infidel literature is scat-
tered broadcast over that land. Bradlaugh, the high-
priest, and IngersoU, the prophet, of unbelief, are known
all over India. Their base and slanderous attacks upon our
faith are there not only known in English, but they are
translated into many of the vernaculars of the land. I have
seen extensive quotations from Ingersoll's ' Mistakes of
Moses,' printed in tract form and scattered among the peo-
ple in remote villages in South India. Many of the peo-
ple of that land learn of Christianity only through these
translated diatribes of Western infidels.'"

IV. The Common Life

One cannot picture the common life of India within
brief compass, differing so widely in its varied realms, un-
less the attempt be confined to the life of typical sections.
Here the necessary lack of detail is supplemented by the
Indian fiction of to-day, particularly that of Kipling, Mrs.
Steele, and Mr. Forrest.

I. A Cosmopolitan City. — City life affects only the
minority of India's inhabitants and is to some degree modi-
fied by contact with the Occident. A ride through its capital
reveals this life as most largely affected by European con-
tact. Calcutta is known as the city of palaces, mainly be-
cause it is so great a center for England's rulers and men
of wealth. Within its eight square miles — thirty with
suburbs — are crowded over 1,100,000 inhabitants, very
cosmopolitan in character, though mostly natives of
Bengal.

^Missionary Review of the World, 1902, pp. 513, 514.

88 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

European Section. — In the European section of the city
with its beautiful Maidan Esplanade, its official buildings
and abodes of wealth, its great fort and its gardens, we
have little to do, since they remind one of a modified Eng-
land rather than of India. The foreign residences are de-
tached and stand in ample grounds. The Doric pillars, flat
roofs, and plastered walls, set off by green blinds, are sug-
gestive of coolness, an object of desire in that hot climate.
There are no cellars or basements, since, in the rainy sea-
son, the water is only three or four feet from the surface.
The two or three stories are devoted to the various pur-
poses of a wealthy home, and the furnishings correspond
with the means of the owner. Broad verandas are a fea-
ture in many homes and the housetop is a place of common
resort.

The Native City. — In the native portion of the city
such innovations as Victoria Square give place to old
names, as the Barber's Bazaar and the Brahman's Village.
Calcutta being so comparatively recent a city, there are
few buildings more than a century old. One is struck at
the outset by the fact that all of a tradesman's goods are
exposed to view out in front, where he sits or stands sell-
ing his wares, often in very small quantities. Some sales
are so limited in value that they are paid for in cowries,
100 of which are worth about a cent. Another striking fea-
ture is the method of carrying on the work in the open
shops, which are at once salesrooms and manufactories. In
some of the narrow streets, European and Asiatic goods
are for sale, the resort of most travelers.

Homes of Wealth. — The homes of the wealthy natives
in Calcutta impress the traveler with their size. This is a
necessity, since the family system of India may sometimes
make it necessary to furnish accommodations for 200 peo-
ple. These homes consist of two or more courts, one be-
hind the other. The front one is occupied by the gentle-
men of the family. The rear of the quadrangle contains a

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 89

room or a platform intended for worship, to the latticed
galleries of which the women of the household living in
the quadrangle behind have access. Back of the women's
quadrangle, there is sometimes a walled enclosure contain-
ing a tank for bathing.

Houses of the Poor. — A vast majority of the homes in
Calcutta are of a very different style. They are structures
of mud or matting with tiled or thatched roof and with
only a little lattice work to admit light and air. Some of
them are without even this convenience, so that when the
doors are closed they are quite dark within. They may
likewise have a veranda, where guests of the family are re-
ceived. Each one of the houses thus described is the home
of a family, and its furnishings are very meager.

2. A Southern Village. — The majority of the mission-
aries and their converts are found in the southern half of
India, and nearly all of the Christians call the village their
home. Since about nine-tenths of the inhabitants of the
Empire live in these little centers of life, the village is
worthy of special mention. A native writer, Mr. Rama
Krishna, speaks of the average hamlet as containing some
fifty or sixty houses. " A cluster of trees consisting of the
tamarind, mango, cocoanut, plaintain, and other useful In-
dian trees, a group of dwellings, some thatched and some
tiled, a small temple in the center — these surrounded on
all sides by about 500 acres of green fields, and a large
tank capable of watering those 500 acres of land for about
six months — this is the village.'" Scarcely any one lives
isolated outside the hamlet, because of the greater protec-
tion afforded from the lawless in a center of life. The
houses are of one story and have mud walls and a thatched
or tiled roof, though the latter is an extravagance which
only the well-to-do can afford. The front walls may be
decorated with vertical stripes about a foot wide, red alter-
nating with white. More commonly, however, utility
' Rama Krishna, Lifs in an Indian Village, p. 39.

90 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

rather than ornamentation is consulted and the front of
the house is covered with cakes of cow manure, which
dry in the sun so as to become fit for fuel. The limited
space around the house is occupied by cattle-stalls and
grain-bins. Not far away is the village tank for washing
clothes, watering cattle, and irrigating fields. The village
well, patronized by the higher castes, the bazaar or market
place, where the few articles required by the inhabitants
are sold, stray donkeys grazing near by, a few starving
dogs, and an abundance of dusky children in nature's garb,
are other details in the picture.

House Interior. — " The interior of the average native
house is even more unattractive than its rude exterior.
Chairs and tables there are none. A low stool, a rude cot
always shorter than a man and without mattress, a loose
mat for the accommodation of visitors, a box or two for
storing away jewels, best clothing, and other valuables,
and innumerable earthen pots for holding rice and other
provisions, complete the stock of furniture, but not all the
other stock. Cows, calves, buffaloes, bullocks, and fowls
are received upon terms of the greatest familiarity in the
ordinary Hindu house, and generally occupy a conspicuous
place in the very bosom of the family.'"

3. Hindu Family System. — We are not to understand
by the word family what is included in that term in the Oc-
cident. In India the joint-family system prevails, accord-
ing to which its members for three generations live to-
gether, where this is possible. Not only do they dwell to-
gether, but they hold all things in common, no member of
it having the right to claim anything as his own. We thus
have in India the patriarchal system, which minimizes the
individual and magnifies the family unit. With the incom-
ing of Western ideas, the educated classes of the Empire
are becoming restive, but steps have been taken to modify
the whole regime. " The recent introduction to the Ma-

' Rowe, Every-Day Life in India, pp. 30, 31.

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 9 1

dras Legislature of the so-called ' Gains of Learning Bill '
is the first serious attack made upon that system. By
means of this bill, which was introduced by an orthodox
Hindu but which is not yet passed, an educated man could
claim exclusive right tq ownership of all properties ac-
quired by him through his education. Thus, for the first
time in India an individual might claim, apart from the
family, that wealth which was acquired by himself.
This bill has brought opposition from the public, be-
cause it conflicts with the rights of the joint-family
and is a serious blow to all the old Hindu family
privileges. The Hindu joint-family system, while it has
been a source of some blessing to the land, has also been
a serious curse in that it has fostered laziness, dissension,
and improvidence, and has put a ban upon individual ini-
tiative and ambition.'" It should be added that the system
above described affects mainly the higher grades of so-
ciety. The laboring classes usually live separately, as in
other countries.

4. India's Women. — The low place given to women in
the family is the primal cause of India's degradation, if
Tennyson's lines are true :

" The woman's cause is man's ; they rise or sink
Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free ;
If she be small, slight-natured, mise;rable.
How shall men grow ? "

From the hour when the infant girl's advent is reported by
the disappointed father as the birth of " nothing " and re-
garded as due to the anger of offended deities, to the day
of a Hindu woman's death, she endures deprivations and
actual wrongs which would be insufferable in an enlight-
ened community. It is true that some of these wrongs are
imperfectly understood in the West. Thus the horrors of
zenana life, which are often measured by exaggerated illus-
trations, affect only a fraction of Indian women, the re-

' Jones, India's Problem, pp. 24, 25.

92 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

mainder moving about almost as freely as in other lands.
The real evil of the zenana system consists in the fact
which causes it, namely, the lust of evil men and the polyg-
amy of the household, or the joint-family system, vi^hich
necessitate the seclusion of their women. The high-born
lady herself, however, often regards her narrow and irk-
some life as a badge of rank and a cause for con-
gratulation.

Women Admired and Honored. — Western travelers re-
call with delight the beauty of many Indian women, despite
the blemishes of reddened finger nails, saffron-dyed faces,
throat bedaubed with red ocher, and a wealth of clumsy
jewelry, including iron rings among the poorer classes. It
is also to be noted that the female in India as in no other
country holds a large place in the worship of the people.
The famous reformer, Keshab Chander Sen, though using
the Lord's Prayer, nevertheless felt so deeply the power
of the fact just mentioned, that he changed its first sen-
tence to " Our mother who art in heaven.'" Missionaries
also are not slow to render these women high honor, as
witness these testimonies : " Such extraordinary accounts
of the condition of Hindu women have found their way
into English print that the European new-comer's greatest
surprise is to find them so much like their sisters in other
parts of the world. He observes in them many of the
graces, virtues, and whims which belong to women in
European countries. . . . Still, they are not the slaves —
the miserable victims of men and of gods — which our
early reading led us to picture them. It is true that women
do not receive that respect and consideration here which
they meet with in European countries, but it does not
follow that they are unhappy in consequence of the neg-
lect.'" "Generally speaking, woman is the redeeming fea-
ture of India. . . . Usually she is devoted to her hus-

'Joiyts, India's Problem, pp. 149, 150.
" Rowc, Evcry-Day Life in India, p. 89.

KACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 93

band, a passionate lover of her children, the conserver of
society, the true devotee in religion.'"

The Obverse — Zenana Women. — This, however, is
less than half the truth. Beginning with the zenana life,
we note the claim that " it has now become to India ladies
a part and parcel of their creed. Modesty, in a word, is
to them the very breath of their nostrils. To do away with
it is a violation of one of the virtues of a woman.'" But
what of their virtual imprisonment, injurious to themselves
and to their children ? What of the ever-present conscious-
ness of their sex and their fear of man ? One consequence of
such an emphasis is expressed in the words of the Indian
writer : " Instead of promoting virtue, it has tended to
make the imagination prurient." Think, too, of the nar-
row horizon of thought and activity of these prisoners
without hope. One does not wonder at the oft-quoted
statement of the well known traveler, Mrs. Bishop, when,
to the deprivations already named, are added the heart
burnings of polygamous households. " I have lived in
zenanas," she writes, " and can speak from experience of
what the lives of secluded women can be, the intellect so
dwarfed that a woman of twenty or thirty is more like
a child, while all the worst passions of human nature are
developed and stimulated; jealousy, envy, murderous hate,
intrigue running to such an extent that in some countries
I have hardly ever been in a woman's house without
being asked for drugs to disfigure the favorite wife, or
take away her son's life. This request has been made
of me nearly one hundred times. This is a natural product
of a system that we ought to have subverted long ago."

Early Marriage and Widowhood. — Without speaking
of the host of women who leave home to pander to the
gods and godless men, one can not but think of the mil-
lions of Indian women who endure the sorrows incident

'Jones, India's Problem, p. 151.

' Fuller, fVrongs of Indian Womanhood, p. 97.

94 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

to child marriage. A girl may be betrothed as soon as
born, though her second and real marriage may not occur
until she is ten or more. Too often becoming a mother be-
fore she is mature enough to endure the strain, she goes
through life a victim of brutal lust, it may be of a man
several times her own age. There are two other things
even worse than this. It may happen that no one is
found to marry her, and as custom requires her to have
a husband, she becomes, in Bengal at least, the wife of
a professional bridegroom of the Brahman caste. He
will marry any number of women and girls for a suitable
fee, seeing his wives occasionally, or perhaps never after
the wedding-day. The other greatly dreaded wrong is
that of child widowhood, which, in multitudinous cases, is
her lot, even though she may never have been married,
her betrothed having died in boyhood. As in 1891 there
were in India 22,700,000 widows, one realizes the flood
of misery that overspreads the land. Everywhere are
shorn, jewelless, starving outcasts, the ill-starred members
of society, shunned by all except those base men for whom
the word widow is synonymous with harlot. Those wid-
ows who have sons are an exception to others not so
blessed.

Woman's Common Lot. — What the masses of Hindu
women endure is indicated in Bishop Caldwell's Tinnevelly
Missions. " If slavery means social degradation, Hindu
women must be regarded as slaves ; for not only are they
denied equal rights with the men, but they are regarded as
having no claim to any rights or feelings at all. The
Hindu wife is not allowed to eat with her own husband ;
her duty is to wait upon her husband when he is eating
and to eat what he has left. If they have any children,
the boys eat with their father, and, after they have done,
the girls eat with their mother. Nor is this custom among
the lower classes only; it is the custom amongst every
class of Hindus, in every part of India where I have been.

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 95

If a party are going anywhere on a visit, the men always
walk first, the women humbly follow; the wife never
so far forgets her place as to walk side by side with her
husband, much less arm in arm. Worse than all this is
the circumstance that women are unable to read, and are
not allowed to learn.'"

Burmese Women. — One numerous class of women fur-
nish an exception to the above statements, namely, those
living in Burma. Mrs. Hart says of them : " While the Bur-
mese man has, by the force of the combined influences of
Buddhism and cHmate, become either an indolent, harmless
monk, or an easy-going, amiable, pleasure-loving country-
man, the Burmese woman, influenced in a far less degree
by' religion, untrammeled by convention, and gifted with
freedom of action from her earliest youth, has developed
into an individual of marked intelligence and strong char-
acter. The women are the traders of the country; with
them large contracts are often made by government offi-
cials. They keep the stalls in the bazaars, and they aid their
husbands in the sale of the paddy harvests. Denied edu-
cation in the past, Burmese girls are now beginning to
avail themselves eagerly of the government schools for
women established by the English.'"

5. Hindu Children. — Patience is the one word which
especially applies to the poorer children of India. From
the days when, as babies, they lie alone for hours, tor-
mented by flies and mosquitoes, but apparently contented
in contemplating their dusky hands, until, prematurely old,
they reach adolescence, they endure all sorts of hardness
with scarcely a word of complaint. They are timid and
usually respectful to their elders. The play instinct is not
so fully developed in them as it is in the Occident. As
for intellectual qualities, children learn rapidly if the
memory only is called into play. When the reasoning

• Murdoch, Indian Missionary Manual, pp. 91, 92.
' India, Ceylon, etc., pp. 264, 265.

g6 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

powers are involved, the children of the higher castes are
naturally superior to those who receive no intellectual
heritage from scholarly ancestors ; hence the lowest castes
are not so hopeful from the intellectual viewpoint as are
the Brahmans.

6. Caste — 7;^ Degeneracy. — The preceding chapter
has suggested the historical origin of the social distinction
known to the West by the Portuguese term, casta, or caste,
and to the Hindus as jati, meaning race or class, or else
as varna, color. The four clearly defined castes found in
the Laws of Manu, namely, the Brahmans, Kshattriyas,
Vaisyas, and Sudras, are now not so distinct, and instead
of four castes their number is legion. The Brahmans
come nearest to being an exception to the rule, — though
even they are subdivided into nearly 2,000 classes, — and
so probably are the Rajputs, who claim to be the lineal
descendants of the Kshattriyas. As for the Vaisyas and
Sudras, they are endlessly subdivided and the early dis-
tinctions have ceased to exist. The successors of the
ancient Sudras are the most numerous by far, and when
added to the Pariahs or outcastes, they represent about
nine-tenths of the population.

Definition and Rationale. — Indian caste of to-day is a
hereditary institution that is at once social, industrial, re-
ligious, and, to some extent, racial in character. In the
religious sense it would more properly be considered in
the following chapter. The native view of caste is well set
forth by Dr. Duff. " The great family of man, in the opin-
ion of the Hindus, is made up of different genera and spe-
cies, each as essentially distinct from the rest as one genus
or species of birds, beasts, or fishes is from one another.
. . . However closely different birds, beasts, and
fishes may resemble each other in outward appearance and
general characteristics, each kind will keep itself distinct
by its food, its habits, and its sympathies; will associate
and congenialize with those of its own kind, in preference

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 9/

and to the exclusion of others. It would be monstrous if
the members of one genus would cease to resemble and
unite with the members of its own genus and mix with and
adopt the distinguishing marks and habits of another. It
would be strange indeed were the lion to graze like an
ox, or the ox to slay its prey like the lion. The special
capabilities also of service to be derived from any particu-
lar genus or species of animals cannot be transferred to
another. A sheep or an ox, for example, cannot be made
to answer the same purpose as a horse. It would be un-
natural to expect that an ox should carry a rider as swiftly
as a horse can, and wrong to make the attempt to train
him for the race-course.

Essential Factors. — "Ideas somewhat akin to these
seem to form the groundwork in the Hindu mind of the
prevalent notions of caste, and may help to account for the
fact that the points considered most essential in caste are
food and its preparation, intermarriage within the same
caste only, hereditary occupation, and a peculiar sympathy
with the whole caste, which, taking the form of initiative-
ness, leads an individual Hindu to follow the example of
his caste, just as a sheep or a wild pigeon follows the
example of the flock. These ideas also may so far explain
the ground of the local variations observable in the cus-
tom and usages of the same caste. In one place a Hindu
will consent to do what in another he would peremptorily
Refuse to do, simply because in the former he is counte-
nanced by the example of his brethren, and not in the
latter; just as a flock of sheep or pigeons may, from acci-
dental causes, somewhat vary its habits or movements in
different localities.'"

Its Advantages. — There are undoubtedly benefits con-
nected with caste. Missionaries have noted its value in
the matter of securing the economic advantages of divi-
sion of labor and the protection coming from the larger
' Duff, Letters on the Indian Rebellion, pp. 324-326.

98 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

caste family. It promotes to some extent cleanliness and
is a moral restraint in certain directions. It has also
proven its value to the British Government from a poli-
tical and police point of view; it has kept alive a learned
class which might otherwise have been blotted out of
existence. To the higher classes it has been a temperance
element of great value in that it forbids the use of liquor.
Caste has made the Hindus content with their lot, and the
system has always upheld a certain standard of morals
by its exaction of obedience.

lis Evils. — The evils of caste are endured without pro-
test, except among the more enlightened. Indeed some
of the greatest sticklers for the institution are found
among the very lowest, even the outcastes. Some of
the evils of the system in society and in the church are
set forth in Canon Churton's paper on the subject. " Bish-
op Heber called it ' an isthmus cast up between Christ and
Belial, a bridge left standing for a retreat to paganism, a
citadel kept erect within the Christian enclosure for the
great adversary's occupation : this is what the Gospel can-
not tolerate.' Bishop Spencer said : ' Idolatry and super-
stition are like the stones and brick of a large fabric, and
caste is the cement. Let us undermine the common found-
ation, and both will tumble at once.' The keen discern-
ment of Bishop Milman perceived at once that caste was
the sinister influence that blighted the mission to the
Santhals in Krishnagur. . . . The Indian reformers, dif-
fering in many ways, are of one mind in denouncing caste
as the great hindrance to progress and social and physical
improvement. Babu' Nagarkar, of Bombay at the Parlia-
ment of Religions, maintained that ' the abolition of caste
is the first item of the program of social reform in India.
Caste,' he said, ' has divided society into innumerable
cliques, and killed healthy enterprise. It is an unmiti-
gated evil, and the veriest social and national curse.

^ He 13 simply Mr. and not Babu.

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE 99

All our domestic degradation is due to this pernicious
system.""

Relation to Missions. — For the missionary, though the
system is indeed a most perplexing problem, it brings
with it an element of hope, as Arthur has well shown.
" Each family and each caste is impacted in itself, and
concreted with all the others, each person forming but a
particle of the mass. A man's mind consists of the tra-
ditions of the ancients, the usages of his caste, and the
dogmas of his sect; independent principles, independent
convictions, independent habits, he has none. You cannot
move him without disintegrating the mass. It is no
light work. A Hindu mind is not dissevered from the
system but by the application of vast forces. Slowly and
painfully it disengages itself; it halts and heaves and
writhes before finally parting — and many treat this as
an obstacle to the spread of Christianity in India. Is it
so? Most indubitably, if the object of Christianity be to
gain in a few years a given number of converts. But if
her object be to pervade all the regions of Hindustan, then
the social bonds, which at first retard individual conver-
sions, so far from being obstacles to a universal revolu-
tion, are but agencies which infallibly conduct to the
remotest depths of the country the impression made by
the missionary at the surface. . . . Where the population
is limited and the relations of society are loose, it is,
humanly speaking, comparatively easy to convert a man to
Christianity. This conversion is of unspeakable import-
ance; it saves a soul from death. But what relation has
this event to the stability of Satan's empire in the conti-
nents that contain more than half the human family?
Scarcely any. A jewel has been snatched from destruction,
but no stone struck from the foundation of the citadel of
evil. Not so with the conversion of one forming part of

' Official Report of the Missionary Conference of the Anglican Com-
munion of i8g4, p. 198.

lOO INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

a system which embraces a continent. His escape rendf
a Hnk in a chain whereby millions upon millions wen'
bound. . . . In no country will individual conversion, if
a given locality, be slower at first than in India; in ni
country will the abruption of masses from the ' grea'
mountain ' be so vast or so rapidly successive.'"

7. Occupations. — The callings most widely represented
in India at the time of the last census are as follows, the
numerals and decimals indicating the number of miUions
of people who are engaged in or depend upon the various
occupations : Leather, horns, boxes, etc., 3.2 ; transport
and storage, 3.5; metals and precious stones, 3.7; wood,
cane, and matting, 3.8 ; state and local administration, 3.8 ;
provision and care of cattle, 3.9; commerce, 4.2; learned
and artistic professions, 4.9; independent means, 5; per-
sonal, household, and sanitary services, 10.7 ; textile fabrics
and dress, 11. 2; food, drink, and stimulants, 16.7; earth
work and general labor, 17.9; agriculture, 191.7.' It will
thus be seen that about sixty-five per cent, of the popu-
lation is dependent on agriculture, while only one person
in sixty belongs to the learned or artistic professions, and
but few more possess independent means. Of these call-
ings, agriculture and the allied trades are the only ones
held in esteem. " The emblem of honor is the plow,
which the peasant proudly scrawls as his sign-manual
whenever he has to enter into any written transaction.'"

8. Village System. — India's village system is some-
what unique and very interesting. In the form which it
assumes throughout most of India, it is a microcosm, as
complete in itself and as independent of outside support
as is possible. The nucleus is the peasantry, at the head
of which stand the families descended from the traditional
first settlers. The peasants usually enjoy a fixed tenure,

* Arthur, Missions to the Mysore, pp. 313-315.
' Statesman's Year-Book, 1903, p. xlvi.
' Jndia^ Ceylon, etc., p. 25.

Young Brahman and His Wife

Yogi, witli Maik of His God on His Forehead

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE lOI

subject to an annual rent charge paid to the State. The
whole country is thus under small holders having a here-
ditary interest in the land. The rest of the community
group themselves about the landed classes, to whom they
minister, being remunerated by a share in the arable land
of the village, or else by receiving a proportion of the
harvest of each landowner. Cash only occasionally enters
into the matter. Artisans of a village rarely work for
a wider market than their own community, being content
with the patronage of their own friends.

Villagers — The Headman. — The influential members
of this miniature world are few, but they are an import-
ant factor in the missionary situation oftentimes, and
always are worth considering. Monier- Williams graphi-
cally describes these dignitaries.' At the apex is the
headman or president, who is frequently illiterate. He is
paid from a fixed proportion of the land and exercises
the functions of a civic magistrate, somewhat as does the
mayor of a Western town. " He is the chairman of the
village or town council, called a panchayat, which often
holds its sittings under a large tree. He decides disputes^
apportions the labor and the amount of produce which
each laborer is to receive as remuneration, and is respon-
sible for the annual proportion due to the Government."

The Accountant. — Next comes the accountant, or
notary, who is often a Brahman and who transacts the vil-
lage business, keeps the land accounts, and attends to the
rents and assessments.

Village Priest. — The village priest is a Brahman and is
in many respects superior to the headman and the account-
ant. He officiates at weddings and other important fam-
ily ceremonies and is always to be revered. " His anger is
as terrible as that of the gods. His blessing makes rich ;
his curse withers. Nay, more, he is actually worshiped as
a god. No marvel, no prodigy in nature is believed to be

' Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, pp. 456-462.

I02 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

beyond the limits of his power to accomplish. If the priest
were to threaten to bring down the sun from the sky, or to
arrest its daily course in the heavens, no villager would for
a moment doubt his ability to do so. . . . The priest con-
fers incalculable benefits upon the community of which he
is a member by merely receiving their presents. A cow
given to him secures heaven of a certainty to the lucky
donor. The consequences of injuring him are terrific. The
man who does him the smallest harm must make up his
mind to be whirled about after death for at least a century
in a hell of total darkness. This will suffice to account for
the respect paid to the Brahman priest by the peasants, who
sometimes drink the water in which his feet have been
washed, by way of getting rid of their sins with the least
possible difficulty.''

The Astrologer. — In some cases the priest is also the
astrologer. As a chief part of the religion of the people is
the fear of the evil influence of stars and planets, this dig-
nitary is constantly needed to determine lucky days for
reaping and sowing and to counteract bad omens, such as
a sudden sneeze, the chirping of a lizard, or an envious
look. " He can cause diseases as well as cure them and
can destroy life by the repetition of magical texts. He is,
I fear, the only physician. The true art of healing and
sanitation is unknown."

The Schoolmaster. — Most villages also have a school-
master ; though here, too, the priest sometimes combines
with his own this important office. A widespreading tree
or convenient shed furnishes a schoolroom where the
alphabet may be scratched on leaves or on the dust of the
ground. Deafening screams prove that his hopeful
charges have mastered the multiplication table and the
other rudiments of knowledge. Failure to satisfy this
pedagogue may result in punishment, such as the culprit's
standing on one foot for half an hour or his hanging for
a few minutes with his head downward from the limb of

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE I03

a nearby tree. If two boys are involved, the penalty may
be to knock their heads together several times.

Artisans. — A number of other men are essential to the
happiness of the dweller in this microcosm. The barber
is a religious necessity, as shaving is required by the Hin-
du's faith. He also serves as a manicure and massagist
and will crack the joints of a customer in a way to delight
the most fastidious. Then there is the blacksmith with his
hammer, tongs, file, and bellows, and his stone anvil. Sit-
ting on his hams he deftly fashions hoop-iron into bill-
hooks, nails, and plow ferrules. The weaver is famous
abroad as well as at home ; for India was probably the first
land to perfect weaving, and it is from that country that
we get the word calico, i. e., Calicut goods, and chintz, the
Sanskrit for variegated. The shoemaker, too, will turn
out a respectable pair of shoes, given time and advanced
pay in order to buy a side of leather, and fashion from it
the article desired with his rough last, knife and awl. The
potter, albeit making little that can be classed among
ceramics, is most useful in fabricating the rough domestic
ware, which may be used only once and then shattered,
and from that up to the earthenware floats used to ferry
people across a swollen stream. In different spheres two
other men are most useful to the community, the gold-
smith, who converts into articles of adornment — and thus
into a convenient form of treasure easily guarded from
theft — the precious and baser metals, and the lowest of
the village corps, as well as one of the most useful, the
serf or menial. He goes by many names ; but a common
one, coolie, indicates by its original meaning — a day's
wage — the fact that he labors by the day. In the city
he is a most useful man of all work, a scavenger, etc. In
the country he adds to these duties that of farm laborer.

The Farmers. — The life of the majority of India's in-
habitants, the nearly 192,000,000 farmers, is graphically
described in the writings of a native, who is speaking of

104 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

the Reddis, a sub-division of the Sudras, who may be
regarded as the representative husbandman of South
India. " As is the case with all those who have to work,
and work pretty hard with their hands for their daily
bread, the Reddi is a very early riser. After partaking of
a good quantity of cold — or rather, decomposing — rice
gruel, well mixed with soured buttermilk, and with a few
green chillies for a relish, the Reddi will set out, plow on
shoulder and staff in hand, to the fields at a distance,
returning home late in the evening. The women and
children, or at least such of them as are either not old
enough or strong enough for outdoor labor, will stay at
home, attending to cooking, fetching water, sweeping, and
other similar household occupations, or will work at the
spindle, turning out no small quantity of yarn, which is
either sold, or given to the village weaver to be turned
into clothes for the use of the family. Some of the women,
too, go to the nearest market-town, weekly or oftener, to
dispose of what home-produce they may have in the shape
of vegetables, milk, curds, or ghee, returning home laden
with such articles of household consumption as are not
procurable in their own village.

Their Meals. — " The most serious part of the day's busi-
ness in a family such as that we are describing, is the
cooking of the mid-day meal. A good portion of the food
then prepared is at once taken to those members of the
family working out of doors, carried in a basket on the
head, or just as often in pots slung to a pole that is car-
ried on the shoulders. After eating follows the traditional
siesta, in which even outdoor laborers indulge; and, after
awaking therefrom, there will be the usual routine of do-
mestic duties gone through, terminating with the prepara-
tion of supper. In the midst of her culinary operations,
the Reddi's wife will rise to perform what is perhaps the
only act approaching to worship in a homestead such as
hers, namely, the lighting of the lamps. Washing her

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE IO5

hands, face, and feet, and smoothing her hair, she will
light a wick, put it in a little saucer of oil, and prostrate
herself before it with ^rms outstretched and the hands
joined together in the well-known Hindu attitude of wor-
ship, calling the while on the names of the family or vil-
lage deity, or just as often on the goddess Lakshmi, the
source of all temporal welfare. Anon the evening meal is
ready, and those at home anxiously await the return of
those who are still outside. When the latter approach the
house, they are presented with a vessel of water to wash
their feet, washing away thereby, as it were, all evil that
they may have brought with them from without, before
entering the house.

Evenings. — " After supper, betel-nut will be chewed
and tobacco smoked, and one by one the several members
of the Reddi family will go to sleep, thus bringing to an
end one of the usual uneventful days of their ordinary
existence.'"

Importance of the Village. — It is such communities as
these, in which the vast majority of India's inhabitants
live and where most of the missionary work is to be done,
of which Elphinstone writes : " This union of the village
community, each one forming a separate little state in
itself, has, I conceive, contributed more than any other
cause to the preservation of the people of India through all
the revolutions and changes which they have suffered, and
is in a high degree conducive to their happiness and to
the enjoyment of a great portion of freedom and inde-
pendence.'"

Industrial Conditions. — Wages are very low, averaging
for the laborer four cents a day and for the artisan fifteen
cents. Consequently poverty is omnipresent, so that Sir
William Hunter could say that forty millions go through

' Pen and Ink Pictures of Native Indian Life, by a Hindu. Madras
Times, 1879.
' Rewe, Every-Day Life in India, p. 158.

I06 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

life with too little food, while Sir Charles Elliot of Assam
wrote, " I do not hesitate to say that half of our agricul-
tural population never know from year's end to year's
end what it is to have their hunger satisfied." Combina-
tions in the interest of labor are common. Caste is in
itself a trade-guild and a mutual assurance society. In
the former capacity it insists on the proper training of the
youth of its craft, regulates wages, deals with trade delin-
quents, supplies courts of arbitration, and prom.otes fellow-
ship by social gatherings. In those sections where each
trade forms a guild irrespective of caste lines, it aims to
regulate competition among its members and uphold its own
trade interests as against the disputes with other crafts-
men. Its use of guild and assurance funds unites with
caste to supply the place of a poor-law.

9. 'Amusements. — The amusements of the Hindus do not
assume any prominent place in their life, unless religious
festivals are regarded in this light. Those not requiring
physical exertion are appreciated next to those that con-
tribute to the Hindu ideal embodied in the widely used
word tamasha, meaning show, display, pomp, and implying
noise and a crowd. Wrestling, acrobatic performances,
jugglery, fireworks, chess, nautch-dancing, and songs and
stories form the staple among the adults. Children indulge
in Hindu variations of marbles, pussy in the corner, blind
man's buff, hide and seek, odd or even, etc.

V. The Government of India

I. 'BritisK "Control — In the matter of government,
" India, in its widest sense, includes British India and the
Native States; the former is under the direct control in
all respects of British officials. The control which the
Supreme Government exercises over the Native States
varies in degree, but they are all governed by the native
princes, ministers or councils, with the help and under the

RACES AND THE COMMON LIFE I07

advice of a resident, or agent, in political charge either of
a single State or a group of States. The chiefs have no
right to make war or peace, or to send ambassadors to each
other or to external States; they are not permitted to
maintain a military force above a certain specified Hmit;
no European is allowed to reside at any of their courts
without special sanction ; and the Supreme Government can
exercise the right of deposing a chief in case of misgov-
ernment. Within these limits the more important chiefs
possess sovereign authority in their own territories. Some
of them are required to pay an annual tribute ; with others
this is nominal, or not demanded.'"

2. Evils. — Kipling has familiarized the reading public
with the life of Indian officialdom, but he has not made
clear enough the burden of most missionaries' lives, who
have groaned beneath the weight of their convert's liti-
giousness, or shared the sorrows of others who have un-
willingly been brought before the courts. As testimony
can be had for any untruth, and as fees and bribes must
be freely given to underlings, the cause of justice often
fails, and petty spite or greed unlawfully wins the case.
These evils are not due to the theory of English courts,
but rather to the character of the people, who shamelessly
perjure themselves in any case not under the jurisdiction
of the native panchayet. The evil most open to rational
complaint is thus described by a native lecturer on the sub-
ject, Mr. R. Dutt: "The people of an entire district or
sub-division of a district look up to the district officer or
to his police for decision in the triflingest matters; and
all local authority which village elders and village panch-
ayets enjoyed of old has been swept away under a sys-
tem of administration far too minute and centralized. One
of the evils of this system is that the officials are not in
touch with the people ; they recognize no constituted lead-
ers and heads of the people; they deal with the people

' statesman's Year-Book, 11)03, p. 133.

I08 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

through the worst of all possible channels, the police. . . .
In the pettiest disputes the villagers go up to the magis-
trate or the police for settlement; the autonomy of Indian
village communities, which outlived centuries of rule
under Hindu and Mohammedan kings, is virtually gone;
and the agricultural population now rush to law courts and
impoverish themselves. Litigation is demoralizing; thou-
sands of simple and truthful agriculturists are tutored in
falsehood in order that they may be effective witnesses;
and the nation is judged by the falsehood uttered in
courts.'"

^ India, Ceylon, etc., pp. 316, 317.

IV

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY

Chapter II. contains an account of the development of
India's religions, from the comparatively pure adoration
and v^rorship of the great powers of nature, through the
period of religious philosophizing and the reforms of
Buddha, dowrn to the present-day degradation of religion
and the attempted restoration of its pristine glory. What
is here written presupposes a knowledge of that chapter
and is a brief presentation of the religious life of India at
the opening of the twentieth century.

I. The Census or 1901

I. Statistics. — According to the last census the reli-
gions of the Empire are as follows :'

Jews . . .

18,228

Animists . . .

8,584.349

Parsees . .

94,190

Buddhists . . .

9,476,750

Jains . . .

1,334,148

Mohammedans .

62,458,061

Sikhs . . .

2,195,268

Hindus . . .

207,146,422

Christians

2,923,241

Others . . . .

2,686

2. Distribution. — The provinces containing most of the
Jews are Bombay, — which is the habitat of more than
three-fourths of them, — Bengal, and Madras. Bombay is
likewise the home of almost eighty-four per cent, of
India's Parsees, making it the greatest stronghold of that
faith in the world. Nearly half of the Jains are also found

^ Statesman's Year-Book, 1903, p. 141.
109

no INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

in Bombay, while Central India, and Rajputana especially,
contain most of the remainder. The Sikhs are almost
wholly found in their early heme in the Punjab. Catholic
and Protestant Christians, are fairly well distributed over
the Empire; though if a line were drawn due west from
Calcutta about four-fifths of them would be found south of
it, two-thirds of the entire Christian population being in the
single province of Madras. Bengal, Bombay, and Burma
are the provinces coming next in the number of resident
Christians. Holders of animistic beliefs are most numerous
in Assam, the Central Provinces, and Bengal, with a goodly
number in Burma, Madras, and Central India. The Bud-
dhists have been driven out of their original home and are
now almost wholly confined to Burma and the rim of
adjacent Bengal, though Kashmir, bordering on Tibet, also
has some 35,000. Mohammedanism is strongest in North
India, Bengal being the home of more than twenty-five mil-
lions of Moslems, and the Punjab standing next in order.
Madras and Haidarabad are the two southern provinces
having the largest number of Moslems. Of all religionists
the Hindus are by far the most ubiquitous, abounding in
all sections except Burma, Baluchistan, and Kashmir,
where either Buddhism or Mohammedanism is so prev-
alent. Madras, the United Provinces, and Bengal have
the largest number of Hindus.'

II. India's Minor Faiths

While with the exception of animism all the religions
noted under this head are of a higher order than popular
Hinduism, they may be summarily treated as affecting but
few in the entire mass of the population, and hence they
may be regarded as of minor importance.

I. Judaism. — The Jews have been in India from

* For a more particular statement of the distribution of India's re-
ligions, see sketch map.

Moslems i^
Christlon6 4-
Animistic 5

SKETCH MAP of INDIA

Showmji Political Divisions ond Populationa and Rclijjione

*

NIC0BAR5

^

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY 1 1 1

remote times, apparently from the first or second Chris-
tian century. " The Buddhist polity, then supreme in
Southern India, was favorable to the reception of a faith
whose moral characteristics were humanity and self-sacri-
fice.'" Hence it was strong for a time, and then lost its
place to early Christianity, whose forerunner it had been.
At present the cities of Bombay and Poena are the chief
centers, though the Black and White Jews of Cochin are
the most interesting. " The Blacks were originally the
slaves of the Whites, as is shown by their historical docu-
ments. It is not known when the Whites came to India. . .
The purity of their blood and the remarkable fairness of
their complexion indicate that the settlement has been from
time to time reenforced from northwestern countries.
They are an exceedingly conservative people; and in their
two synagogues, they conduct their worship perhaps more
like the Jews of twenty centuries ago than do any other
representatives of that race to-day. The day-school con-
nected with the White Synagogue closely resembles the
little school which our Lord attended at Nazareth.'"

2. The Parsees. — Driven by Moslems from their Per-
sian home, the Parsees have for more than a thousand
years made the city of Bombay and its neighborhood their
adopted land. " Their faith, Zoroastrianism, is the purest
of ethnic religions. It has preserved its ancient integrity
and high tone much better than its sister faith, Brahman-
ism. Among the members of this religion are found men
possessed of great enterprise, much wealth, the spirit of
philanthropy and culture. They give high honor and posi-
tion to their women, and in all matters of civilization are
considerably in advance of even the best class of Hindus.
. . . Though these Parsees have, for more than a
millennium, made India their home, they have kept them-
selves apart from the people of the land and are still as

' Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 285.
'Jones, India's Problem, pp. 55, 56.

112 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

truly foreign in the land of their adoption as are the Eng-
lish residents.'"

3. The Jains. — The Jains of to-day are hardly true to
their name, — Jaina means victorious ones, saints who
have reached perfection through self-conquest and disci-
pline, — yet they are superior in their morality to the vast
majority of Hindus. " Being mostly traders, merchants,
or bankers, they live in towns, and the wealth of many of
their community gives them a social importance greater
than would result from their mere numbers. It is even
said that half the mercantile transactions of India pass
through their hands. Their charity is boundless, and they
form the chief supporters of the beast hospitals, which
the old and striking animistic tenderness for animals has
left in many parts of India.'" In South India it should be
added, the Jains are almost exclusively engaged in agri-
culture.

Their Temples. — Fergusson has this to say of their
larger temples, whose magnificence and beautiful locations
are so characteristic of Jainism : " They are situated in
separate enclosures surrounded by high, fortified walls ;
the smaller ones line the silent streets. A few priests
sleep in the temples and perform the daily services, and a
few attendants are always there to keep the place clean,
or to feed the sacred pigeons, who are the sole denizens of
the spot; but there is no human habitation, properly so
called, within the walls. The pilgrim or the stranger
ascends in the morning and returns when he has per-
formed his devotions, or satisfied his curiosity. He must
>not eat, or at least must not cook his food, on the sacred
hill, and he must not sleep there. It is the city of the gods
and meant for them only, and not intended for the use of
mortals.'"

" Jones, India's Problem, p. 58.

* Thornton, Parsi, Jama and Sikh, p. 40; see also Hunter, Indian
Empire, p. 205.

' Fergusson, History of Architecture, vol. iii., bk. ii., p 226.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY II3

4. The Sikhs. — The Sikhs, not mentioned in Chapter
II., are chiefly known to the West as loyal and brave sol-
diers of Britain's Sovereign, both within and outside India.
Yet originally the martial bond afterward uniting them
was wanting, Sikh signifying "disciple" merely; and the
devotion of the disciples to their Guru, or divine guide,
was the main feature of their life from the day of Nanak,
their founder and a contemporary of Columbus, to the
tenth Guru, Govind Singh, with whom the succession
ceased. He made war the holy occupation of all the initi-
ated, so that less than a century ago it could be said of
them, when trained under European officers, that the Sikh
army for steadiness and religious fervor had not seen its
equal since the days of Cromwell's Ironsides.

Amritsar. — From the time of the fourth Guru, who pur-
chased the large square tank at a place called from that
fact Amritsar, " pool of immortality, or nectar," this has
been the holy place of Sikhism. He also built in the midst
of this tank the famous Golden Temple. His son, Arjan,
compiled and placed therein the most sacred book of their
religion, the Adi Granth, or " First Book." Next to the
Taj at Agra, the Golden Temple is the most famous piece
of architecture in India; yet its fame among Sikhs is due
to the two Granths enclosed within this beautiful shrine.
The tenth Guru, after adding martial passages to the
peaceful Adi Granth, left the two books as the perpetual
guide of his sect.

Bibliolatry. — Although the temple is free from images,
" the Granth is in fact the real divinity of the shrine and
is treated as if it had a veritable personal existence. Every
morning it is dressed out in costly brocade and reverently
placed on a low throne under a jeweled canopy, said to
have been constructed at a cost of 50,000 rupees. All day
long chowries are waved over the sacred volume, and
every evening it is transported to the second temple on
the edge of the lake opposite the causeway, where it is

114 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

made to repose for the night in a golden bed within a con-
secrated chamber, railed off and protected from all pro-
fane intrusion by bolts and bars.'"

Present Status. — Though originally a sort of compro-
mise between Islam and Hinduism, Sikhism has degener-
ated in recent years, so that even on the margin of its sacred
lake there is set up an image of Krishna. A large number
" adopt caste, wear the Brahmanical thread, keep Hindu
festivals, observe Hindu ceremonies, and even present
offerings to idols in Hindu temples.'"' According to the
census report of 1891, " the only trustworthy method of
distinguishing this creed was to ask if the person in ques-
tion repudiated the services of the barber and the tobac-
conist; for the precepts most strictly enforced nowadays
are that the hair of the head and face must never be cut,
and that smoking is a habit to be avoided."

5. Buddhism. — Omitting all reference to Christianity
until later in the book and treating animistic faiths under
Hinduism in its lower popular acceptation, Buddhism is
next on the census list. Although Hinduism was pro-
foundly affected by Buddhism, despite its rejection of the
system as a whole, and while its doctrine of transmigration
is that so widely known through Buddhism, and even
though Buddha is included in the Hindu Pantheon as the
ninth incarnation of Vishnu, this great faith is a vital issue
only in Burma and on the Tibetan borderland.

In Burma. — In the eastern part of the Empire Gautama
has almost undisputed sway. " In estimating the Bur-
mese national character," writes Mrs. Hart, " it must be
always borne in mind that the Burmans are essentially
Buddhistic. Buddhism in its purest and most spiritual form
is the religion which influences them from their early
youth ; it molds their views of life, defines its aims, gives
motive to endeavor, and reveals the great hereafter. The

1 Monier- Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 177.
"Ibid., p. 178.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY 1 1 5

Buddhism of the Burraans has not been degraded into a de-
basing superstition, nor has it degenerated into an idola-
trous practice; but it is in essence an ideal, ethical and
spiritual faith, overladen in some degree by Nat worship
and burdened by the superstition of pagoda building.

Pagoda Building. — " Everybody who visits Burma is at
once struck by the enormous number of pagodas in that
country. From the great gold-encrusted cupola of the
Shway Dagohn, which is the first object seen on approach-
ing Rangoon, to the 9,999 pagodas of Pagahn, every form
and variety of pagoda may be seen in traversing Burma.
Every little village by the river side shows its cluster of
white cupolas, and from every cliff and mound flash the
golden htees, which surmount the glistening pinnacles. The
building of a pagoda in memory of the great teacher,
Buddha, is believed to be an act of merit, which will free
the pious founders from some of the rounds of existence
which are necessary before heaven can be reached. For
it is an essential doctrine of Buddhism that the soul must
be purged by an enormous number of transmigrations from
every stain of selfishness or self-love before heaven can
be entered, and that the highest heaven can only be
reached by absolute self-abnegation, by the loss of even
the desire to possess an individual life. Then is Nirvana
attained; for it is only when self is lost that eternal life
begins.'"

Monasteries and Monks. — Every male Burman must at
some time in his life reside in a monastery, shave his head,
wear the yellow robe of the Order, and, renouncing the
world, go at least once round the village with a begging
bowl hung around his neck with the regular monks. The
entry into the monastery is the most important event in a
Burman's experience and influences the entire populace.
Naturally, therefore, men are friendly to the religion after
they have left the monastery, as every one does except

^ India, Ceylon, etc., p. 262.

Il6 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

the 'fully initiate'd monks. As all boys attend these mo-
nastic schools, Buddhism is a national educator, with the
result that in addition to the reading, writing, and arith-
metic learned there, " fluency of speech and great skill in
carrying on an argument according to their own system of
dialectics are the common possession of the educated Bur-
mans, and an unshaken conviction in the truth of their reli-
gion is almost universal."

Defects. — Even this purest form of Buddhism is power-
less to regenerate life. The first Mrs. Judson's estimate
of the system, written in 1818, is true of the Buddhism
of to-day : " The system of religion here has no power
over the heart, or restraint on the passions. Though it for-
bids, on pain of many years' suffering in hell, theft and
falsehood, yet, I presume to say, there is not a single
Burman in the country, who, if he had a good opportunity
without danger of detection, would hesitate to do either.
Though the religion inculcates benevolence, tenderness,
forgiveness of injuries, and love of enemies; though it for-
bids sensuality, love of pleasure, and attachment to worldly
objects; yet it is destitute of power to produce the former,
or to subdue the latter, in its votaries. In short, the Bur-
man system of religion is like an alabaster image, perfect
and beautiful in all its parts, but destitute of life. Besides
being destitute of life, it provides no atonement for sin.
Here also the Gospel triumphs over this and every other
religion in the world.'"

III. Mohammedanism

I. Strength. — If Professor Schmidt's estimate of their
total number is correct,^ nearly one-third of all Moham-
medans in the world live in India under the sway of Chris-
tian England's King. The entire population of the United

' E. Judson, Life of Adoniram Judson, p. 73.
^ Scobel, Geographisches Handbuch, p, 209.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY II 7

States at the census of 1890 exceeded India's Moslem s
eleven years later by only half a million. They possess
q ualities ofleadershipi n a higher degree, perhaps, than
t he Hindu s: yet this leadership has rii Ot been exerted to- 1
ward the elevation of their neighb ors who are without a
true God. Not only are Indian Moslems among the lowest
in the number of literates, but in most other respects they
are laggards. " They have been much less affected by the
rapid advance of the modern world than the Hindus. Their
system is hopelessly antagonistic to everything new and
everything progressive."^ Their very strength thus be-
comes an obstacle to progress. So quick are they to take
offence that the Government has to do more to conciliate
and favor this section of the population than it does the
other four-fifths of the people of India.

2. Sects — the Sunnites. — The sects of Islam in India
are numerous, though more than nine-tenths are Sunnis.
The word means those who follow the Sunna, or the tradi-
tional rule of Mohammed. They assume to themselves
the title of Najiyafa, or those who are " being saved " — as
do the other sects also. The hadith, containing their addi-
tions to the Koran, is the residual after the compilers had
followed the wise example of Yahya 'bn Nain, who wore
out his last pair of shoes in collecting 600,000 traditions,
and who said, " I copied quantities of traditions to the dic-
tation of liars and heated my oven with them, whereby
my bread was well baked.'"' Since the object of these
traditions is to make needless all appeals to reason and
conscience, even the educated Hindu Mohammedan is not
a rational believer.

Shiahs — These constitute about two per cent, of India's
Moslems, though they stand next in number to the Sun-
nites, if the large number of Moslems who are not distin-
guished in the matter of sect is disregarded. As their

^Thoburn, India and Malaysia, p. 121.
^Chambers's Encyclopaedia, vol. ix., p. 811.

V'

Il8 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

name suggests, they are the " followers " of AH, believing
him to be the rightful successor of Mohammed. The ray
of divine glory, supposed to have been placed in the body
of the Prophet, passed on to Ali and from him descended
to the eleven Imams, his successors. The twelfth Imam,
the Mahdi, exists hidden from man, but he will be revealed
at the second advent of Christ. Though they reject the
" six correct books " of the Sunnis, they have five collec-
tions of traditions of their own.

Wahhabis. — While the Wahhabis are not numerous,
they are fanatically opposed to British influence; and, as
in 1863-64, they have been guilty of treasonable intrigue.
Patna is their chief center. Opposed to both of the par-
ties above named, they are nevertheless substantially Sun-
nite. Smoking is in their opinion a greater sin than mur-
der and adultery, and they attach great merit to counting
the ninety-nine names of God on the fingers.

Modern School. — The sect which is known as Mutaz-
ilites, " Separatists," have their successors in the modern
school, who are more in evidence in the Occident as
apologists for Mohammedanism than their numbers war-
rant. They are the Freethinkers of Islam, denying the
eternity of the Koran, and asserting that Mohammedanism
is tolerant and non-aggressive. Saiyid Amir Ali even goes
so far as to say that polygamy is indirectly forbidden,
that the Islamic laws prohibit slavery, and that it is even
abhorrent to Mohammedanism. Their discussion of moral
and social questions, however, is without doubt of value
to the Empire. Sir Saiyid Ahmad is their greatest leader
and writer.

Its Aligarh Institutions. — It is to this modern school
that the higher education of Mohammedan youth owes so
much. Their Institute and College at Aligarh, whose chief
instructors are English graduates of British universities,
are probably the highest educational institutions in the
Moslem world. It is to this type of Mohammedanism,

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAV II9

also, that the plea for reform in education came at the late
coronation durbar. On that occasion Aga Khan delivered
an address from which this extract is taken : " It was,
first, the bad example and selfishness of the Abbassides;
secondly, the fatal system of modern purdah, with its
restrictions on the intellectual development of woman;
thirdly, the constant and silent withdrawal of the most
pious and moral Moslems into a life of private prayer and
devotion; and lastly, this doctrine of necessity, that
brought about our downfall. I say it was, in my opinion,
these four causes that have brought Moslem society down
to its present low and degrading level of intellect and char-
acter." He then pleads for the enlarged endowment of their
College : " We want Aligarh to be such a home of learn-
ing as to command the same respect of scholars as Berlin
or Oxford, Leipsic or Paris. And we want those branches
of Moslem learning, which are too fast passing into decay,
to be added by Moslem scholars to the stock of the world's
knowledge. And, above all, we want to create for our peo-
ple an intellectual and moral capital; a city which shall
be the home of elevated ideas and pure ideals; a center
from which light and guidance shall be diffused among the
Moslems of India, aye and out of India, too, and which
shall hold up to the world a noble standard of the justice
and virtue and purity of our beloved faith." Well may
the editor of the periodical from which these words are
quoted,' say: "If the speech of the President can be
regarded as interpreting the desires of the 2,000 delegates,
we are likely ere long to see one of the greatest changes in
the teaching and policy of Islam that has ever been wit-
nessed either in India or elsewhere." It should be remem-
bered, however, that orthodox Moslems do not regard
these Neo-Mohammedans as within the pale of true Islam,
any more than strict Hindus consider the Brahma Samaj
as representing Hinduism.

> The East and the West, April, 1903, pp. 148-155.

I20 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

3. Islam Wanting. — In -addition to Sir Richard Tem-
ple's opinion of Indian Mohammedanism, found in a pre-
vious chapter, others might be quoted to show the inher-
ent inability of this widely accepted monotheistic religion
to regenerate India's millions. As Schlegel said long ago
of Islam, it is " a prophet without miracles, a faith with-
out mysteries, and a morality without love ; which has en-
couraged a thirst for blood, and which began and ended
in the most unbounded sensuality.'" And back of the
Mohammedan purdah system, which Aga Khan laments,
is a more vital weakness. "The religion that does not
purify the home can not regenerate the race; one that
depraves the home is certain to deprave humanity. Moth-
erhood must be sacred, if manhood is to be honorable.
Spoil the wife of sanctity, and for the man the sanctities
of life have perished. And so it has been with Islam. It
has reformed and lifted savage tribes; it has depraved and
barbarized civilized nations. At the root of its fairest cul-
ture a worm has ever lived that has caused its blossoms
soon to wither and die. Were Mohammed the hope of
man, then his state were hopeless ; before him could only
lie retrogression, tyranny, and despair.'"

Monotheism vs. Idolatry. — Even its emphasis of mono-
theism has been impotent to permanently affect the sur-
rounding idolatry and polytheism. Indeed, here, as in
China, one finds a most convincing reply to Professor
Menzies' assertion, if he is using the term " heathenism "
in its broad sense : " Islam is an admirable corrective of
heathenism; it brings the scattered and bewildered wor-
shipers of idols together in one lofty faith and one simple
rule."° Instead of converting idolaters to their own views,
Indian Mohammedans added to their own religion idola-
trous elements from Hinduism, especially in Bengal, their

^ Philosophy of History, quoted in Murdoch, Selections from the
Koran, p. 174.

^ Fairbairn. The City of God, p. 98.
° Menzies, History of Religion, p. 238.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY 121

great strong'Kold. Despite the Moslem revival of the last,
half of the nineteenth century, Mohammedanism is still
correctly characterized by Sir William Hunter's words:
" It has conspicuously failed to alter the permanent reli-
gious conceptions of the people. ... A local writer,
spealting from personal acquaintance with the Musalman
peasantry in the northern districts of Lower Bengal, states
that not one in ten can recite the brief and simple kalma, or
creed, whose constant repetition is a matter of almost un-
conscious habit with Mohammedans. He describes them
as a ' sect which observes none of the ceremonies of its
faith, which is ignorant of the simplest formulas of its
creed. Which worships at the shrines of a rival religion, and
tenaciously adheres to\practices which were denouncedi'as
the foulest abominations by its founder.' "

4. Islam's Growth — 'Censuses. — The question "whether
this compound of strength^, and weakness is making pro-
gress in India is one of interest to all Christians. A com-
parison of the censuses of the last two decades shows that
between the years 1881 and 1891 they increased i4.36Tper
cent., and during the last decade 8.96 per cent. In those
two decades, however, the entire population of India also
increased 'and at the following rate: From i88i-'to 1891,
13 per cent.; from 1891 to 1901, 2.48<per cent.

iV. "Hinduism

Writers on Hinduism usually discuss its main phases
under the heads of Vedic Hinduism, Brahmanism — a
term, however, not used by native writers, — and Popu-
lar Hinduism. Enough has been written about the first of
these in chapter II., and later in the present chapter
Brahmanism, or Philosophic Hinduism, appears in con-
nection with reformed Hinduism. Popular Hinduism, af-
fecting more than two-thirds of India's inhabitants, calls
for fuller treatment.

122 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

I. Objects of Worship — Water. — Objects of worship
are exceedingly numerous, even if the popular belief that
India has 33,000,000 gods is indefinite. Water-worship is
very prevalent. Of all waters those of the Ganges are the
most to be revered, flowing, as they are supposed to do,
from the toe of the great god, Vishnu. A manifest benefit
to the many millions living near its fertilizing waters, this
most majestic of Indian rivers soon became, like the Nile,
the most revered of all, — " no sin too heinous to be
removed, no character too black to be washed clean by its
waters. Hence the countless temples with flights of steps
lining its banks; hence the army of priests, called the
' Sons of the Ganges,' sitting on the edge of its streams,
ready to aid the ablutions of conscience-stricken bathers
and stamp them as white washed, when they emerge from
its waters; hence, also, the constant traffic carried on in
transporting Ganges water in small bottles to all parts of
the country.'" The. supposed power of the Ganges in life
is indicated by this prayer : " Oh, Mother Ganga ! I now
bow at thy feet; have mercy on thy servant. Who can
describe thy virtues? Were the greatest of sinners, the
perpetrators of endless crimes, to pronounce the word
Ganga, he, being delivered from all his sins, shall be trans-
lated to the blissful abode of the celestials." And as death
approaches, the holy river is still more valued, for the
reason that the Agni Purana declares that " those who die
when half their body is immersed in Ganga water shall be
happy thousands of thousands of ages and resemble Brah-
ma."^ Other votaries claim a higher sanctity for the Nar-
bada River. " One day's ablution in the Ganges," they
assert, " frees from all sin, but the mere sight of the Nar-
bada purifies from guilt." Two wells are likewise re-
garded as especially sacred, both of them at Benares. One
is the Well of Knowledge, in which Siva is said to reside;

* Monier-Williams, Hinduism, p. 172.

' Murdoch, Popular Hinduism, pp. 20, 2T.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I23

and the other, Manikarnika, is. fabled to have been dug
with Vishnu's discus and to have been filled with perspira-
tion from his body. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims,
many of them diseased, bathe in its waters, hoping to
remove in a moment the sins of a lifetime.

Stones, etc. — Inanimate objects, such as stones, are
adored. Some of them — the fossil ammonite, for exam-
ple — are supposed to possess inherent divinity and have
their connection with the great gods — Vishnu, in the
case of the ammonite. Most of them, however, are
marked out for worship with red paint and are mere
fetishes. Petitions like the following are offered by coo-
lies and others : " If thou help me in this work, I will offer
to thee on the coming Saturday a pice [about half of
a cent] worth of red lead." The traveler in India notes a
stone as large as a man's head lying at the foot of a sacred
tree; it is the only representative of Shasti, protectress
of children and worshiped mostly by women. Village
deities are especially likely to be stones painted red; or
else the same divine pigment is smeared over rocks and
sacred trees.

Tool Worship. — The worship of another class of inan-
imate objects, namely, one's tools, seems more reasonable.
" Every object that benefits the Hindu and helps to pro-
vide him with a livelihood becomes for the time being his
fetish, or god. On particular days the farmer prays to
his plow, the fisher to his net, the writer adores his pen,
the banker his account-books, the carpenter his tools, the
woman her basket and other articles that assist in her
household labors.'"

Plants and Trees. — Plants, too, are the objects of wor-
ship, as are certain trees. We have seen why the soma
plant was considered divine. Many others are so regarded
because of the Hindu 'doctrine of transmigration, accord-
ing to which demons, men, and animals can pass into
' Murdoch, Popular Hinduism, p. 20.

124 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

plants. It would be manifestly unwise, therefore, to offend
any such power. Not to speak of the banyan, the fig —
the pipal or bo tree — and the wood apple, the kusa grass
and the tulasi plant are most popularly worshiped. This
sacred grass " is used at all religious ceremonies. It sanc-
tifies the soil, forms the most sacred of all seats, cleanses
everything it touches, purifies the impure, and when
wound round the fingers makes them fit to engage in the
most solemn rites. In virtue it is nearly equal to the excre-
ments of the cow. . . . The tulasi [toolsi, or holy
basil] is especially the Hindu woman's divinity. It is gen-
erally planted in the courtyard of respectable families,
with a space around for circumambulation. All the religion
of many of the women consists in walking round the tulasi
plant, in saying prayers to it, or in placing offerings before
it. The great object is to have sons. They walk io8 times
around it, with the right shoulder always turned towards
it. If the left shoulder were used, all the efficacy would
be lost.'"

Zoolatry. — ■ Animal worship is common, partly for the
same reason that plants are regarded as sacred. The
popular belief is that there are 8,400,000 human, animal and
plant lives through which any man may pass in his weary
round of transmigration. " Even a flea may enclose the
soul of some person who was a sage or a saint. The
stories of talking beasts and birds are by ignorant Hindus
looked upon as real narratives." While the cow and, next
to her, the bull rank highest in India's zoolatry, the monkey
is also held in high veneration. Hindu women will not in-
jure a cat, since that was the animal upon which Shasti
was said to ride. The worship of snakes is likewise a spe-
cialty of the women, who place before their holes offerings
of milk and eggs, with invocations and prayers.

Brahmans. — Living men are regarded as divine. Not
only does Manu assert that a " Brahman is a mighty god,
' Murdoch, Popular Hinduism, pp. 15, 16.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I25

a supreme divinity whether he be learned or -unlearned, and
even if employed in inferior occupations," but they are
actually so looked upon by the masses. Most Hindu men
have one of them for his Guru. " They are taught that it
is better to offend the gods than the Guru. If a man of-
fends the gods, his Guru can intercede on his behalf and
win their favor ; but if a man offend the Guru, there is none
to appease his wrath. The curse of a Guru will condemn
a man to untold miseries in hell. Hence it is no uncommon
thing, when a disciple meets his Guru, to prostrate himself
before him and take the very dust from his feet and place
it on his head. . . . The depth of debasement is
reached in the case of the Vallabha sect, a division of the
Vaishnavas. Their chief priests are called Maharajas and
are regarded as incarnations of Krishna. Men and women
prostrate themselves at their feet, offering them incense,
fruit, and flowers, and waving lights before them. . . .
Women are taught to believe that the highest bliss will be
secured to themselves and their families by intercourse
with the Maharajas. Rich Bombay merchants, as shown
by a trial in 1862, gave their wives and daughters to be
prostituted as an act of religious merit to men who had
ruined their health by debauchery.'"

Ancestral Worship. — This widely prevalent worship is
based upon the Hindu belief that some of the dead are de-
graded at death to the demon state, while others become
divinities. For three generations it is believed that the
departed need to be nourished by their descendants and to
have works of merit performed for their benefit. The
sraddha offerings on the first day after death give the
departed spirit a head, on the second day a neck and shoul-
ders, and so on until the tenth day when the body is formed
and is voraciously hungry. Feeding on the offerings, it
gains strength for the awful journey to Yama, or hell,
begun on the thirteenth day. Midway in this journey of

^ Murdoch, Popular Hinduism^ p. 25.

126 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

559,000 miles is the awful river, Vaitarani, which is 650
miles wide and " filled with blood, infested by huge sharks,
crocodiles and sea-monsters, darkened by clouds of hideous
vultures. Thousands of condemned spirits stand trembling
on its banks. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the
blood which flows at their feet; then tumbling headlong
into the torrent, they are overwhelmed by the rushing
waves. Finally they are hurried down to the lowest depths
of hell to undergo inconceivable tortures. On the other
hand, the Hindu is taught that by performing certain- re-
ligious rites and giving gifts to the Brahmans, all the ter-
rific penalties of sin may be avoided and Yama loses its
victims.'" What wonder that the birth of -a son is desired,
since he is the proper one to present these offerings, and
since it is these that deliver parents from hades !
Nor is it any marvel, since India's millions do not regard
the above as a Dantesque fantasy but as an impending and
dreaded reality, that Hindu parents look with utter dismay
upon the conversion of an only son to the Protestant re-
ligion, whose teachings are so diametrically opposed to
such a belief.

Deified Men. — Five classes of men have been deified
and are objects of general adoration, as are the manes of
the departed in a given family. These are noted kings,
warriors, Brahmans, saints, and sages. Their apotheosis
is gradual and natural. " The earliest start of even a first
rate god may have been exceedingly obscure ; but if he or
his shrine make a few good cures at the outset, especially
among women or cattle, his reputation goes rolling up like
a snowball. This is the kind of success which has made
the fortune of some of the most popular, the richest, and
the most widely known gods in Berar, who do all the lead-
ing business.'" Votaries being capricious, hero-worship is
subject to constant change. " The Indian pantheon," as

'■ Murdoch, Popular Hinduism, pp. 12, 13.
' Lyall, Afiaii^ St«dies, p. 24.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I27

Sir A. C. Lyall remarks, "like the palace in the Persian
parable, is but a caravanserai."

Demonolatry. — Demons and malevolent spirits are the
objects of almost universal dread and reverence, especially
in Burma. It is the main feature of vsrorship that marks
the animist also. The wide prevalence of this largely non-
Aryan superstition is thus stated by Sir Monier-Williams :
" The ordinary Hindu peasant's religion consists mainly in
seeking deliverance from the evil inflicted by demons. . . .
The great majority of the inhabitants of India are, from
the cradle to the burning-ground, victims of a form of
mental disease which is bes* expressed by the term demon-
ophobia. They are haunted and oppressed by a perpetual
dread of demons. They are firmly convinced that evil
spirits of all kinds, from malignant fiends to mischievous
imps and elves,4are ever on the watch to harm, harass, and
torment them; to cause plague, sickness, famine, and dis-
aster; to impede, injure, and mar every good work.'"

Burmese Nat Worship. — In Burma there is a modifi-
cation of demonolatry, as many of the spirits are benev-
olent and are only demons in this restricted-sense. Nat, the
name for these spirits, has " two distinct meanings, one
kind of nats being the inhabitants of the six inferior
heavens, — the devas, transferred from the Vedic mythol-
ogy, — and the other, the spirits of the air, water, and
forest. The last are the most diligently propitiated, for
fear of the harm they may do, at a shrine at the end of each
village. Sometimes it is a mere bamboo cage with a gaudy
image or images of a fetish-like ugliness, to which offer-
ings are made by the villagers. In fact the whole category
of local spirits, disease spirits, demons, omens, and magic-
workers is to be found in considerable force in Burma,
though greatly frowned upon by local [Buddhist] priests.
. . . The butterfly spirit is the Burmese idea of the es-
sential spirit of human life, which may wander in dreams,
' Monier- Williams, Brahmmism md HiniuUm, pp. 210, an.

128 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

be charmed or afflicted by demons or wizards, be preserved
by witch-doctors, and which finally departs at death.'"

The Trimurti — Brahma. — India's gods and goddesses
are in many cases less worthy of honor than some of the
objects of worship already mentioned. At the head of the
pantheon stand the Hindu triad, or trimurti, Brahma, mas-
culine, the offspring of the Eternal Supreme Being —
Brahma, neuter, the maker of all things ; Vishnu, the pre-
server ; and Siva, the destroyer and reproducer. Of these
Brahma is without a temple, save at Pushkara, the other
gods having deprived him of worship, because he thrice told
a lie and hired the cow, Kamadhenu, and the three Kataki
as false witnesses. If they had been equally conscientious
regarding their own sins, there would have been no Hindu
pantheon; for mortals guilty of a tithe of the crimes that
mark the story of Vishnu and Siva would have been jailed
and executed by any modern court of justice.

Vishnu as Krishna. — The idea underlying the avatars
or incarnations of Vishnu is praiseworthy, their object
professedly being to correct glaring evils or to effect some
great good for the world. Of his ten principal incarna-
tions, the eighth, that of Krishna, "the dark god," is
widely celebrated. He is the most popular of all the later
deities of India. " Krishna, as conceived by the Hindus
now, is a strangely mixed character. He is the warlike
prince of Dwaraka, in Gujarat; he is the licentious
cowherd of Vrindavana; and he is the Supreme Divinity
incarnate. . . . Unhappily the Hindu mind delights
especially in the foul tales told of him in the second of
these characters ; and among the embellishments of Hindu
dwellings may often be found pictures representing him
sporting with the Gopis [female cowherds]. The influ-
ence for evil which the story of Krishna's early life has
had in debasing the Hindu mind has been immense.'"

' Bettany, The World's Religions, pp. 309, 310.
^Mitchell, Hinduism Past and Present, pp. 119, 120.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I29

He has been characterized as the incarnation of Lust
and is said to have had 16,100 wives and 180,000 sons.''

Siva. — And Siva, the third member of the trimurti, the
companion of prostitutes whose eyes are red from intoxica-
tion, is most fitly represented by the symbols of generation,
the linga and yoni combined. " Temples to hold this sym-
bol, which is of a double form to express the blending of
the male and female principles in creation, are probably
the most numerous now to be seen in India."^ It may
be added that Vishnu is most popular in the North, while
Siva is the favorite god of Southern India.

Ganesa. — Ganesa, son of Siva, is a god of second-
ary, yet great, importance to the Hindu, though his
elephant head and bloated body do not suggest it.
As lord of the troops of mischievous and malignant
spirits who cause obstacles and difficulties, he is in-
voked at the beginning of all undertakings. Schoolboys,
especially, pray to him for aid in their studies, while every
orthodox Indian book begins with an invocation to him,
the writing of a book, according to Monier- Williams,
being peculiarly liable to obstruction from spiteful and
jealous spirits, whose malignity must be counteracted.

Goddesses. — Not to speak of the myriads of other Hin-
du gods, mention must be made of a few of the goddesses
most popular in India. Each god has one or more wives,
who represent the active principle of the divine nature, as
he does the quiescent principle. Brahma's Sakti, or active
principle, is Sarasvati, the goddess of learning ; Lakshmi is
the wife of Vishnu and is the goddess of fortune ; and
Siva's wife is Kali, "black," variously known as Parvati
and Himavati, because a 'daughter of the Himalayas, Bhai-
ravi, " the terrible," Durga, overcomer of the giant of that
name, or simply as Mahadevi, "the great goddess." As
the latter appellation suggests. Kali is par excellence the

^ Murdoch, Popular Hinduism, pp. 30, 31.
? Monier- Williams, Hinduism, p. 93,

I30 INDIA AND t CHRISTIAN-' OPPORTUNITY. '-

great" g'Oaaess or 'India," and from Her tfie nietropolis gets>
its first syllable, '^Calcutta signifying " dwelling of Kali."
This goddess " is represented as a black woman with four
arms. ,•" In one hand she has a weapon, in another the head
of the giant she has slain; with the two others she is en-
couraging her worshipers. ' For earrings she has two dead
bodies ; she wears a necklace of skulls. Her only clothing
is a girdle made of dead men's hands, and her tongue pro-
trudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red as those of a
drunkard, and her breasts are smeared with blood. She
stands with one foot on thp thigh and the other on the
breast of her husband."^ '■

Saktas. — • Worshipers of the^Sakti,~or female principle
of the gods, are known as Saktas. They are divided into
two parties, those of the right hand, whose practices are
merely marked by mystery, magic, and folly, and those of
the left hand, whose immorality is unsurpassed by the
worst that ancient Greece and Rome dreamed of, and prob-
ably has been unequalled in any other system. At their
meetings "' a woman must be present as the living repre-
sentative of the Sakti goddess. She is first stripped of all
her clothing; wine and flesh are given to her and to the
company, which must be composed of both sexes. The
women drink first out of goblets of cocoanut or human
skulls. The men then drink. No regard is paid to caste.
Excitement, even intoxication, is produced by the abundant
use of liquor. The lights are extinguished, and then follow
doings indescribable. Professor H. H. Wilson rightly
designates these as ' most scandalous orgies.' The abomi-
nable character of the whole celebration is heightened by
the declaration of the sect that all is done, not for sensual
gratification, but as an exalted form of divine worship.'"
As it has been estimated that three-fourths of the Hindus
in Bengal are Saktas, the loathsomeness, and awful danger

^ Murdoch, Pop-ular Hinduism, p. 36.
'Mitchell, Hinduism- Past and Prpsent, p. 1^.4,

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Great Mosque at Delhi

Tank and Temple Architecture — South India

THE RELIGtOtrS LIFE OP TO-DAV I3I

of such a religion may be realized. To speak fully of In-
dia's " gods many and lords many," would only show the
appropriateness, as applied to Hinduism, of Bossuet's
words describing classical antiquity, " Tout etait Dieu, ex-
cepte Dieu lui-meme, — All was God, save God Himself."
2. Shrines and Temples. — In describing the Hindu vil-
lage, the place of the Brahman priesthood in the common
life was spoken of and more need not be said. Nor will
decency permit anything more than a reference to those
unfortunate women who are priestesses of religion, and
who, whether called muralis, bhavins, jogtins, or nautch
girls, are in reality all more or less deserving the name of
a single class of them, devadasi, " slaves of the god." This
means slaves of lust, either of the priests or of men of every
caste. The fact that a large proportion of the educated
women, outside the Christian pale, belong to these classes,
ought not to abate our pity and compassion for them. Yet
public religion has its high places which must be men-
tioned. They range from the rude shrines, dotted all over
the land, adorned with a rag or two to attract worshipers,
to world-famed temples. These " vary in style and size,
beginning in their simplest form with the village shrine of
the local god, and the cave temple of the early Buddhist,
advancing to the elaborately carved Kailas cut out of the
solid rock, and the huge and grotesquely ornamented tow-
ers which crown the vast structures of Southern India.
The country is rich in building materials, and the best
available is devoted to the service of the divine. Stone of
various colors, marble, and a durable and costly stucco are
all represented. In the east and in Burma, where stone is
rare or has to be imported from a distance, timber takes its
place; or in the midst of the highly cultivated tracts, where
trees have had to make way for the plow, the useful bam-
boo with the palm thatching lends a special feature to the
architecture. It may be observed in passing, that though
the divinities in favor vary in each tract of India, there is

132 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

a curious tendency toward simplicity in both temple and
rites, as well as in the character of the god, among the
more martial and hardy races ; while among their oppo-
sites, fashion inclines toward elaborate and grotesque
monstrosities in architecture and a cruel and bloodthirsty
deity indoors. A great feature in Brahmanic worship is
the frequency and efficacy of ceremonial ablutions. These
must be performed daily before food is taken, so that a
large pond or reservoir is usually provided, unless a stream
be within reach.'"

3. Hinduism's Highplaces. — National high places are
legion, including river confluences, residences of famous
deities, as that of Jagannath — Juggernaut — at Puri, di-
vine lakes, shrines of goddesses, and famous monasteries.
Greater than all the rest, however, is Benares, the Jerusa-
lem of the Hindus. " Here in this fortress of Hinduism,
Brahmanism displays itself in all its plenitude and power.
Here the degrading effect of idolatry is visibly demon-
strated as it is nowhere else except in the extreme south of
India. Here temples, idols, and symbols, sacred wells,
springs and pools, are multiplied beyond all calculations.
Here every particl-e of ground is believed to be hallowed
and the very air holy. The number of temples is at least
2,000, not counting smaller shrines. In the principal tem-
ple of Siva, called Visvesvara, are collected in one spot
several thousand idols and symbols, the whole number
scattered throughout the city being, it is thought, at least
half a million."^

4. Temple Worship. — Worship is conducted on a dif-
ferent plan from that in Christian lands. It is mainly a
personal service of the gods, the priests being their valets,
and butlers, and the people being absent or else passive
spectators. Thus in Dr. Mitra's description of the worship
in a great Siva temple in Orissa, of the twenty-two cere-

^ India, Ceylon, etc., pp. 6, 7.

* Monier-WiUiams, Hinduism, pp. 174, 175.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY 1 33

monial acts of the daily worship, ten have to do with the
god's dress and sleep, and nine are connected with as many-
meals which he daily enjoys. Waking him with bells at
dawn and the waving of lights before him when his teeth
are brushed in the morning and a similar waving before
retiring are the other acts of worship/ " The worship of
Vishnu is much of the same character, but no animal food
is offered. The following is part of the address to the god
when wakening him with singing and music in the morn-
ing : ' The darkness has departed ; the flowers have
opened and diffused around their fragrance; behold the
dawn of the day and the morning breeze 1 Arise, therefore,
thou that sleepest in thy bedchamber.' . . . The temple
of Kali near Calcutta at great festivals almost swims with
blood, and the smell is fairly sickening. The people bring
their victims, pay the fee, and the priests put a little red
lead on its head. When their turn comes, the executioner
takes the animal, fixes its head in a frame, and then be-
heads it. A little of the blood is placed in front of the idol,
and the pilgrim takes away the headless body. Dr. Rajen-
dralala Mitra says, ' There is scarcely a respectable house
in all Bengal, the mistress of which has not at one time
or other shed her own blood under the notion of satisfying
the goddess by the operation.' '"

No Congregational Worship. — It should be added that
the idea of Congregational worship is wanting in the Hin-
du's mind. " Occasionally, it is true, and on stated days,
he visits idol shrines; but he does not go there with any
idea of praying with others. He goes to the temple to per-
form what is called Darsana; that is, to look at the idol,
the sight of which, when duly dressed and decorated by the
priest, is supposed to confer great merit. After viewing
the image, he may endeavor to propitiate the favor, or
avert the anger, of the god it represents by prostrations of

1 Monier- Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduisnif pp. 93, 94.

2 Murdoch, Popular Hinduism, p. 46.

134 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

the body, repetitions of its name, or presentation of offer-
ings. His real religion is an affair of family usage, do-
mestic ritual, and private observance. Not that his do-
mestic worship is free from sacerdotal interference. Sac-
.erdotalism uncontrolled by any central authority exerts a
strong powenover personal and family religion and all the
stronger from the absence of congregational religion.'"

Spiritual Worship. — Both in the temples and in private
life there is not vi^anting a more spiritual conception than
that of the vast majority of Hindus, just described. Thus
in the Madhva Sect of Vaishnavism, — a sect neairly seven
centuries old and supposed to have gained its distinctive
character from contact with early Christian missions, —
the act of worship is said to be " threefold : with the voice
— by veracity, right conversation, kind words, and the rep-
etition of the Veda; with the body — by giving alms to the
poor, by defending and protecting them ; with the heart —
.by mercy, love, and faith. This is merely a repetition of
the old triple 'division of duties, according to thought,
word, and deed.'" The recent reform movements, espe-
cially some of the samajes,' also emphasize the spiritual
•nature of worship.

5. Home Religion. — A native writer, Babu, S. C. Bose,
thus describes the family religion of the higher classes:
"In almost every respectable Hindu household there is a
tutelar god, generally made of stone or metal after one of
the images of Krishna, set up on a gold or silver throne,
with silver umbrella and silver utensils dedicated to its
service. Every morning and evening it is worshiped by
'the hereditary Purohit, or priest, who visits the house for
the purpose twice a day, and who, as the name implies, is
the ' first ' in all religious ceremonies, second to none but
the Guru, or spiritual guide. The offerings of rice, fruits,

' Monier-Williams, Brahmantsm and Hinduism, p. 352. 'Ibid., p. 132.

^ While samaj literally means " society," less correct but more common

usage is here followed, according to which it signifies " reform organi-

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY 1 35

Sweetmeats, and milk, made to the god, he carries home
after the close of the service. A conch is blown, a bell is
rung, and a gong beat at the time of worship, when the
religiously disposed portion of the inmates, male and fe-
male, in quasi-penitent attitude, make their obeisance to
the god and receive in return the hollow benediction of the
priest. The daily repetition of the service quickens the
heart-beats of the devotees and serves to remind them, how-
ever faintly, of their religious duties. Such worship is pop-
ularly regarded as an act of great merit, paving the way to
everlasting bliss.'" In poor homes there is no regular daily
worship, though irregular and frequent religious acts and
offerings are characteristic of practically every one. Most
of these acts are mechanical and intended to gain merit.
Thus children are generally named for some god, so that
merit may accrue every time the god's name is uttered, as
when the child is called home. Parrots are sometimes
taught to repeat the names of deities, the consequent merit
belonging to the owner. A more meritorious deed is the
repetition of the thousand names of Vishnu. Peculiar im-
portance is attached to his name Hari. A dying person
placed in the Ganges is exhorted to say " Hari !" as the
passport to heaven.

6. Leading Ideas of Hinduism. — But what is there be-
hind these external features of Hinduism? Probably not
two out of a thousand could give any intelligible answer to
such a question. They worship they know not what nor
why. Yet that there are real, though unconscious needs
and motives underlying this omnipresent religiosity, there
can be no doubt. Disregarding the historical origin of
Hinduism's beliefs, the present-day Hindu of the rank and
file stands in the following relations to religion.

Selfhood. — The struggle for existence is for the masses
the most pressing of realities, despite a warm climate and
ordinarily fruitful soil. Indeed, the scorching heat and

' Bose, The Hindoos as They Are, pp. ii, 12.

136 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

possibilities of famine intensify the personal strain and the
constant sense of dependence. The Hindu does not re-
member when " he began to be in want" ; he scarcely recalls
a day when he was not in need. He may not think of his
Father's house, but he does think of the multitudinous
deities whose wrath may hinder and whose favor may aid
in the strenuous struggle for existence. Again, he lives
in the sensuous tropics, and like most men whose sensual
nature asserts itself in proportion as mental and spiritual
ideals are lacking, his passions dominate him. A conscience
seared through millenniums of heredity may possibly re-
prove his unlawful desires. If it should, he does not have
far to seek to find divine sanction, either in the sacred
books of Hinduism, or in the example of libertine deities
for any grossest licentiousness to which he is prompted.
This man is self-centered in his fears also. The very real
demon world in which he believes himself to live fills him
with dread. He must pit against these powers of darkness
some potent opposing power, and hence he calls to his aid
his tutelary deities. But his fear goes farther afield as he
thinks of that day when he must tread his winepress alone
and make the awful journey to Yama. Who will deliver
him who through fear of death has been all his lifetime
subject to bondage ? And even Yama is not the goal ; for
through the firmly believed doctrine of transmigration a
series of lives, 8,400,000 in number, is inseparably con-
nected with his own, — lives so truly described in the pop-
ular belief by the South India poet :

" How many births are past, I can not tell ;

How many yet to come, no man can say ;
But this alone I know, and know full well,

That pain and grief embitter all the way.''

This dread of continued transmigration is the haunting
thought of every Hindu. His great aim, therefore, is to
break this chain of repeated existences and return to com-
plete absorption into pure, unconscious spirit.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I37

The Caste-Family. — But he is not merely an individual
whose present life is linked with his other countless selves
of the dim past and age-long future; he is as indissolubly
connected with a multitude of men like himself, those of
his great caste-family. Aside from the social aspects of
this institution, which were dwelt upon in the previous
chapter, " caste is at every point connected with Hinduism,
— a thing interwoven with it, as if Hinduism were the
warp and caste the woof of the fabric of Indian life.'"
Personal responsibility for one's own morals and religion
thus becomes merged in the caste's views and practices, and
the individual conscience is lost in the ethical judgments
of others. Custom thus becomes the practical god of all
Hindus, and in no land is religion so dominated by society
interpretations of it.

Gods. — The Hindu's relation to his caste and his own
deep need of religion have helped to make him " in all
things very religious. " His gods must be many ; for
so are his needs, and so has been the teaching of his caste-
family, whose members by the covert experimenting of in-
dividuals have hit upon many deities of supposed power.
India is thus preeminently the land of idols and of the
gods which to a few of the more enlightened are repre-
sented by them. Except for the poems, notably the two
great epics, these gods have no uplifting ethical power over
him ; they are tools by which he gains a livelihood, or
supernatural defenders against omnipresent but unseen
dangers.

Pantheism. — The higher minds of the nation refused to
assent to a myriad of divine beings, preferring to regard
them as manifestations or attributes of the one great All. .
This metaphysical idea has permeated the masses suffi-
ciently to make it true of even popular Hinduism that its
substance is wrapped up in its briefest of all creeds,

' Carmichael, Things as They Are: Mission Work in Southern
India, p. 85.

,138 INDIA And christian opportunity

" Ekam eva advitiyam, — There is but one Being without
a second." The phrase "without a second" does not mean
without a second god. " Nothing really exists but the one
impersonal Spirit, called Atma, or Brahma. Brahma is
real ; the world is an illusion. From it everything is born ;
in it everything breathes and is dissolved."' Being thus
part of God, — nay, God himself, — moral distinctions are
lost to every soul, because all human sins thus become
divine acts.

Mediatorship. — But this logical conclusion is not fully
appreciated by the simple villager; there is too much real
divinity in him for that. Needs are pressing; gods are
many; demerit and sin. are his body of death. Where is
salvation ? He does not say with the patient old sheikh of
Arabia,

" There is no daysman betwixt us,

That might lay his hands upon us both " ;

for in his view they are on every hand. He does not care
so much for those supposedly historic incarnations of the
saving Vishnu, — not even for that of Krishna; for in
every hamlet even there are living sons of the great God,
the revered Brahmans. The trite syllogism of Indian logi-
cians is the only piece of formal reasoning that is univer-
sally known :

" The whole world is under the power of gods ;
The gods are under the power of the mantras ;
The mantras are under the power of the Brahman ;
The Brahman is therefore; our God."

And of such a god a distinguished Babu writes : " I ask
every Hindu to look into his heart honestly and answer
frankly, whether a Brahman of the present day is a true
embodiment, a glorious display, a veritable representative
of Brahma, the Creator. Has he not long since sacrificed
his traditional pure faith on the altar of selfishness and

'■ Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 34. 1

,THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY '1 39

concupiscence and committed a deliberate suicide of his
moral and spiritual faculties? We blush to answer the
question in the affirmative.'"

7. Eclectic Hinduism. — Such a system as we have de-
scribed could not but feel the effect of contact with West-
ern thought and a pure religion. The various samajes and
eclectic systems of to-day are thus the resultant of contact
of the Indian mind with Christian truth and institutions,
leading to a return to the Vedas and to the amalgamation
with them of many Christian ideas. " Most of these move-
ments are merely half-way houses between Hinduism and
Christianity. They are with faces more or less turned to-
ward the light and possess the progressive spirit, which, in
some cases, can not fail of landing their members at no
distant date in the Christian fold.'"

Brahma Samaj. — The first of recent religious
movements is the Brahma Samaj, or Society of God,
founded by Rammohun Roy. Professor Monier-Williams
calls him the " first earnest-minded investigator of the
science of comparative religion that the world has pro-
duced." Though a high caste Brahman and keeping his
sacred cord about him till death, he boldly attacked the
evils of Hinduism. Here is his estimate of it : " The pub-
lic will, I hope, be assured that nothing but the natural in-
clination of the ignorant towards the worship of objects
resembling their own nature, and to the external form of
rites palpable to their grosser senses, joined to the self-
interested motives of their pretended guides, has rendered
the generality of the Hindu community, in defiance to their
sacred books, devoted to idol worship: — the source of
prejudice and superstition, and the total destruction of
moral principle, as countenancing criminal intercourse,
suicide, female murder, and human sacrifice.'" And this is

' Eose, The Hindoos as They Are, p. 186.

* Jones, India's Problem, p. 349,

•Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinittism, p. 481. ,

140 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

a Statement found in one of his later works : " The conse-
quence of my long and uninterrupted researches into re-
ligious truth has been that I have found the doctrines of
Christ more conducive to moral principles and better
adapted for the use of rational beings, than any others
which have come to my knowledge.'" Though he estab-
lished a society in 1816, the germ of the first Theistic
Church was not planted until 1828. He was a friend and
supporter of the missionaries, notably Dr. Duff, even
though some of them bitterly assailed his positions.

Keshab Chandar Sen. — After the death in Bristol, Eng-
land, of this greatest modern religious reformer of India,
the society was carried on by his successors until in 1844
the first organized Theistic Church of India, hence after-
ward called the Adi Brahma Samaj, was established in
Calcutta, with Tagore as its leading spirit. It attracted a
large number of Brahmans, but soon discord began, owing
largely to the strength and liberality of thought of Keshab
Chandar Sen. The desire of his faction to enter into a
social campaign against caste and various other evils of
Hinduism, led to a split, the radical wing taking the name
of the Brahma Samaj of India. Sen was in no mood to
compromise, which was the policy of Tagore. " He was
to destroy, rather than to renovate the old Vedic system,
with all its train of ceremonial rites and observances."
His strong mind finally so usurped dominion in the Society
that with his own inconsistency in giving his daughter in
marriage to a native prince and the sacrifice of principles
in that connection, dissension arose and his influence be-
gan to wane. His later career was marked by vagaries,
though his work still continued to be helpful to the cause
of religious and social reform. In its later development the
Society was called the New Dispensation Church. His
general attitude toward Christianity is seen at its best in
the famous address entitled " India Asks, Who is Christ? "
1 Mopier-WilUanis, ^raftwcfwm and Hinduism, p. 483.

ITHE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I4I

delivered in Calcutta in 1879. In this splendid specimen
of native oratory occurs the oft-quoted passage : " It is
Christ who rules British India. England has sent out a
tremendous moral force in the life and character of that
mighty prophet to conquer and hold this vast Empire.
None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but Jesus, ever de-
served this bright, this precious diadem, India, and Jesus
shall have it."'

Theosophy. — The various samajes are like the con-
servative wing, the Adi Samaj, or else follow the type of
the New Dispensation Church. The growing Arya Sa-
maj is described in chapter VII. Some, again, take an in-
dependent line, and call their creed Theosophy, meaning
thereby divine wisdom or science, — spiritual philosophy.
" They hold that all religions have elements of truth which
spring from the one Fountain of Truth, and that Theoso-
phy is the synthesis of all religions. Hence pure Brah-
manism, pure Buddhism, pure Islam, pure Christianity,
may be equivalent to Theosophy. It may be true that
Theosophy is spreading, but in India it seems to be little
more than another name for Vedanta philosophy.'" The
strange compound of fraud and mysticism, concocted in
the witches' cauldron of Madame Blavatsky and Colonel
Olcott, has proven that even in that land of credulity and
occultism, an Occidental importation is not popularly ap-
preciated, save as an abettor of reformed Hinduism.

8. Hinduising the Occident. — With the advent of
Swami Vivekananda at the Chicago Parliament of Re-
ligions, the Occident gained its first realizing sense of re-
formed Hinduism's attempt to propagate its creed in Chris-
tian lands. Since that time not a few other swamis have
lectured to audiences, mainly made up of women, who have
been captivated by turbans and flowing robes and a wealth
of mellifluous words and of Oriental mysticism. They ^rg

^ Monier-William?, Brahniani^m an^ Hin4ui^m, p. 516,
" Ibid., p. 536>

142 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

/

mostly teachers of the Vedanta philosophy concerning
which an earnest student of the Upanishads writes : " The
.Vedanta, the highest conclusion of Indian thought, is based
on a mistaken and pessimistic view of Hfe ; on a formulated
dogma, unsupported by any evidence and untaught in the
hymns of the Rig Veda; the whole an elaborate and subtle
process of false reasoning.'" According to the German
authority, Richard Garbe, the object of the Vedanta, which
is " the most orthodox of the six orthodox Brahmanical
philosophies,'' is " the release of the soul from the bonds of
corporeal existence and the teaching of the means of escape
from the distressful round of rebirth. . . . This con-
viction that each individual after death will be again and
again reborn to a new existence in which he enjoys the
rewards of previously accumulated merit and suffers the
consequences of previous misdeeds, is a fundamental fac-
tor of the Indian pessimism. According to the Vedanta,
the only release from this endless round of birth and death
is to be won by the attainment of knowledge. The funda-
mental dogma of the Vedanta system, according to the
teaching of the Upanishads, is this : That our self is abso-
lutely identical with Brahman [here means " power," the
great Over-soul]. Now Brahman is eternal and infinite.
But since everything which consists of parts or which is
susceptible to change is transitory, therefore it is impossi-
ble that Brahman should consist of parts, or suffer change.
From this it follows that every one in his innermost
essence must be, not a part of Brahman, but the whole in-
divisible Brahman. Any other reality than this there is
not.'" This, then, is the substance underlying such an
avalanche of words as have become known to the public
through Mrs. Mason's powerful and accurate satire, de-
spite its incorrect title."

^ Slater, Studies in the Upanishads, p. 47.

* Universal Cyclopaedia (1902 edition), vol. xii., p. 132.

' Mason, The Little Green God.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I43

Vivekananda. — The typical representatives of the
swamis is the late Vivekananda himself. His real name
was Norendra Nath Dutt, his title Vivekananda meaning
" Bliss-discrimination." Being of the Sudra caste he was
forever disqualified from teaching religion, or even from
being taught its higher truths, standing as he did at the
opposite pole of castedom from the Brahmans, or teachers.
After graduating as B. A. in the General Assembly's Insti-
tution at Calcutta, for a time he was a member of the
Brahma Samaj, but later he studied under Ramakrishna,
whom be describes as being unlearned. When Max-
Miiller asked Vivekananda whether his master knew San-
skrit, he replied that he had been taught it by a beautiful
woman in the jungle, she having been sent down from
heaven on this errand. The Oxford professor's reply was :
" Nonsense ! The only way to learn Sanskrit is to get a
grammar and dictionary and go to work.'" His address
at the Parliament of Religions, which was so much lauded,
was thus criticised by The Indian Nation, one of the ablest
Hindu journals : " We can not help thinking that it ex-
hibits other evils than those of mere compression. It is
not merely inadequate, but it is inaccurate, inconsistent, in-
conclusive. It is amusing to observe how the writer ap-
propriates the doctrines and motives of Christianity and
flings th^m in triumph at the Christian. The doctrine of
love may be Hindu, but is also and mainly Christian."^

His Estimate of Western Women. — The Swami thus
paints American women : " When the woman tries her
best to find a husband, she goes to all the bathing places
imaginable and tries all sorts of tricks to catch a man.
When she fails in her attempts, she becomes what they call
an old maid and joins the church. Some of them become
very churchy. These church women are awful fanatics.
They are under the thumbs of the priests there. Between

^ Quoted in The Interpreter, September, 1897.
^ Swami Vivekananda end His Guru, p. xxix.

144 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

them and the priests they make a hell of earth and make
a mess of religion.'" Comparing Hindu and American
homes, Vivekananda said: "The Indian woman is very
happy; there is scarcely a case of quarreling between hus-
band and wife. On the other hand, in the United States,
where the greatest liberty obtains, scarcely is there a
happy home. There may be some; but the number of
unhappy homes and marriages is so large that it passes all
description. Scarcely could I go to a meeting or a society
but I found three-quarters of the women present had
turned out their husbands and children. It is so here,
there, and everywhere.'" The disgusting rites with which
. he and other swamis on their return to India purify them-
selves from contact with Western peoples, and especially
with the ladies of culture whom they meet, include the
use of the excreta of the cow. Surely American women
are ignorant of the facts in the case, or they would be
more in earnest to send the Gospel to India than to re-
ceive from Hindu swamis instruction in spiritual things.
9. Hinduism's Defects. — In an appeal to Hindus, the
following effects of Hinduism are dwelt upon, as most
of them have been in this chapter also, (i) As caste
discourages departure from India, it thus prevents the
acquisition of wealth on the part of a few, while in its
effect upon new manufactures it tends toward the impov-
erishment of the masses. (2) It encourages the present
intellectual stagnation and imbecility, particularly among
the lower castes. (3) It is hostile to social reforms. (4)
Through the slavery of caste rules individual liberty is
impossible, as also because of the enthronement of custom.
(S) It hinders the growth of nationality by interminably
splitting society along caste lines. (6) A privileged few
of the highest castes are puffed up with pride, while the
vagt ijiajority of the lower orders in society are ranked

^Madras Mail, February 6, 1897.
? Brahmavadin, June 19, 1897, p. 251,

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF TO-DAY I45

beneath the brutes in the thought of many. It also regards
foreigners as equally low in the ceremonial scale. Even
Sir Monier- Williams found when visiting India that the
pandits who visited this master of Sanskrit bathed after-
ward to remove the pollution which they had thus con-
tracted. (7) Religion is centered on outward ceremony.

(8) In Hinduism religion and morality are divorced,
while immorality is deified and men can sin religiously.

(9) The means prescribed for deliverance from sin are
worthless, such as bathing in the Ganges, rubbing ashes
on the forehead, traveling long distances by measuring
one's length on the ground, etc. (10) In a word, Hindu-
ism is rebellion against God, the rightful Lord of the
universe. It gives the honor due to Him alone to num-
berless imaginary gods, goddesses, demons, animals, and
inanimate objects, with the results pictured so vividly in
the first chapter of Romans."^

V. Pilgrimages and Holy Men

I. Pilgrimages. — Two features of the religious life
of India belong alike to Hinduism and Mohammedanism,
as well as to some of the less numerous religions. Pil-
grimages are the result of the popular desire to visit at
least once in a lifetime places of reputedly great sanctity.
They '' are generally performed as acts of faith and devo-
tion for the accumulation of religious merit," or to atone
for sins. Sometimes, however, they are undertaken for
the performance of Sraddha ceremonies in honor of de-
parted ancestors, or for the recovery of some sick person,
or to convey the burnt remains of the bodies of deceased
relatives to some sacred shrine near a river, the object
being to scatter the ashes on the purifying waters.^ Pil-
grim hunters, or agents, go about the country securing

^ Murdoch, Popular Hinduism, pp. 74-77.
' Monier-WiUianis, Hinduism, pp, 171, 173,

146 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

devotees for their particular shrines, and the number who
go annually to such places as Benares and Puri — the
shrine of Jagannath — is almost beyond belief. The moral
and physical effects of these pilgrimages are wholly
against them, since thieves and harlots participate in force,
and sanitation becomes well-nigh impossible.

2. Holy Men. — Great numbers of men spend their
lives, not only in visiting the great pilgrim centers, but in
going about from shrine to shrine. While Moslem fakirs
differ somewhat from the Hindu Yogis, they are alike the
beaux ideals of the two great creeds. Sir Monier- Williams
says of the latter: " The aim of the Yoga is to teaoh the
means by which the human soul may attain complete union
with the Universal Soul. . . . The Yoga system ap-
pears, in fact, to be a mere contrivance for getting rid of
all thought, or, rather, of concentrating the mind with the
utmost intensity upon nothing in particular. Ordinarily it
is a strange compound of exercises, consisting in unnatural
restraint, forced and painful postures, twistings and con-
tortions of the limbs, suppressions of the breath under-
taken apparently with no object except to achieve vacuity
of mind.'" Filth and uncleanHness are other characteris-
tics of these men. Many of them live alone as solitary
mendicants, while others go in companies armed and with
banners. In the case of Mohammedan fakirs, they are
often a source of danger because of their fanaticism, par-
ticularly after they have become wrought up at some
famous place of pilgrimage.

* Monier- Williams, Hinduism, pp. 200, 201.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA

India is unlike other great mission fields, as China and
Japan, in that it has had from the early centuries a few
representatives of Christianity living in the midst of its
religions and unconsciously leavening them, or being
leavened thereby. Moreover, we have in this Empire an
illustration of the varied forms of Christianity — except
the Greek, and their different effects upon the same na-
tive systems.

I. St. Thomas and Pantaenus

I. Traditions. — Traditions of the missionary labors of
one of the Twelve, St. Thomas, have for centuries existed
in India. In their fullest form they are found in two of the
apocryphal books of the New Testament, " Acts of the
Holy Apostle Thomas," and " Consummation of Thomas
the Apostle.'" The " Acts," a Gnostic work written by
Leucius, does not go back farther than the second century
and is manifestly fanciful. The following is a specimen
of the book : " We portioned out the regions of the world,
in order that each one of us might go into the region to
which the Lord sent him. By lot, then, India fell to
Judas Thomas, also called Didymus. And he did not
wish to go, saying that he was not able to go on account
of the weakness of the flesh ; ' and how can I, being an
Hebrew man, go among the Indians to proclaim the

' The Ante-Nicene Fathers (American edition), vol. viii., pp. 535-532.
147

148 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

truth ? ' And while he was thus reasoning and speak-
ing, the Savior appeared to him through the night and
said to him : ' Fear not, Thomas ; go away to India and
proclaim the^Word, for my grace shall be with thee.' But
he did not obey, saying : ' Wherever Thou wishest to
send me, send me elsewhere ; for to the Indians I am
not going.' " The following day Jesus' sold Thomas as
a slave carpenter to one Abbanes from India, who pur-
chased him for his king. As a carpenter he was not to
be commended; for, being bidden to build a palace for
the king, he expended the money on the relief of the
poor. His missionary efforts, however, were crowned
with success. In both East and West Thomas's name
was connected with .India from the fourth century, and
the Malabar Christians of St. Thomas still count him as
the first martyr and evangelist of their country.*

2. Explanations — The Name India. — These tradi-
tions and others of later date are not believed by
most reputable scholars of to-day, but are variously
explained. Some would account for them by the in-
definite use of the term India. " Ethiopia and Arabia
Fehx, the adjacent Insula Dioscoridis — Socotra —
were designated by ■ this name. These countries, how-
ever, maintained by trade a lively intercourse with India
proper, and could thus furnish a channel for the propaga-
tion of Christianity in the latter. Gregory Nazianzen
says that Thomas preached the Gospel to the Indians,
but Jerome understands the India here meant to be
Ethiopia. If the tradition in Origen, which makes
Thomas the apostle to the Parthians, were credible, it
would not be so very remote from the former legend;
since the Parthian empire touched, at that time, on the
boundaries of India.'"' As persistent traditions connect

^ Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iv., p. 754.
' Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church,
vol. i., p. 82 (Boston edition).

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA I49

his work and his tomb with Persia/ this last explanation
seems probable.

Different Thomases. — Others would explain the tradi-
tions by the stories of two other prominent Thomases who
were connected with the early Indian Church, one a Mani-
chaean who was in India toward the end of the third cen-
tury, and the other an Armenian of the eighth century,
who was a restorer of their faith. On his death, his
memory received the gradual and spontaneous honors of
canonization by the Christian communities for whom he
had labored, and his name became identified with that of
the apostle.'" Bernard suggests still another explanation.
As it seems probable that India was evangelized through
some one from Edessa, where St. Thomas's grave was
located, later memories connected his name with that of
Edessa's famous saint.' Whatever be true with regard to
the Apostle, St. Thomas's Mount, near Madras, has for
centuries been a sacred spot among Indian Christians of
the Syrian Order.

3. Pantaenns. — The end of the second century brings
us to " the first historical missionary of Christ to the
peoples of India."* Pantaenus, the Principal of the Chris-
tian College at Alexandria, had been a Stoic of Athens or
Sicily. He thus possessed intellectual qualities which,
when brought into captivity to Christ, made him a fit in-
strument to lead philosophical Brahmans to Jesus' feet.
Added to an acute intellect were his peculiar power as a
teacher and those rare opportunities for the development
of pedagogical ability afforded by the school of cate-
chumens, wherein he taught Christians and converted
heathen alike the facts and doctrines of Christianity.
His Didaskaleion at Alexandria confronted the Serapeum,

1 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, i., 13; iii-> i- Socrates, Ecclesias-
tical History, i., 19; iv., 18.

2 Hunter, The Indian Empire, p. 281.
'Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iv., p. 754-
♦Smith, The Conversion of India, p. 11.

I go m&iA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

as truly a stronghold of the cultured heathenism of his
time as is the Al Azhar of Cairo to-day.' Thus provi-
dentially prepared and with a world-wide reputation as
an expositor of the Scriptures, he was sent to India,
"that he might preach Christ among the Brahmans."
Had he remained there all his life, " this very great
Gnosticus, who had penetrated into the spirit of Scrip-
ture," might have laid foundations that would have with-
stood the subsequent Christian impact, which has ever
since been a mixed good in a land which so sorely needed
a full Gospel and a Savior wholly divine. One char-
acteristic fact of his sojourn there is his account of a
Hebrew or Aramaic version of St. Matthew, which
would indicate that the early Christians of India com-
monly used that tongue.

II. Nestorians and the Syrian Church

I. Persian Origins. — Whether Pantaenus won many
converts or not, it is evident that a century later Indian
Christians were numerous. At the Council of Nicea in
325 A. D., Johannes, the Metropolitan of Persia, also
signed himself " Of the Great India," thus indicating ec-
clesiastical jurisdiction from Persia. Hence it is not
surprising to learn that soon after Nestorian zeal began
to disseminate that form of Christianity throughout East-
ern and Southern Asia, it gave color to Indian views of
the person of Christ and of other leading doctrines of
Christianity. " In the fifth century," writes Sir William
Hunter, " Nestorianism, driven forth from Europe and
Africa, became definitely the doctrine of the Asiatic
Church, and Syriac became the sacred language of Chris-
tian colonies far beyond the geographical limits of Syria.
Bishops, priests, and deacons from Syria spread a certain
uniformity in matters of faith and ritual through Persia

* Smith, The Conversion of India, p. 13.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA I5I

and along Persian and Arabian sea-boards, and thence
to the Christian settlements on the Indian coasts. It
should be remembered, therefore, that during the thou-
sand years when Christianity flourished in Asia, from the
fifth to the fifteenth century, it was the Christianity of
Nestorius.'"-

2. The Middle 'Ages. — During the Middle Ages In-
dian Nestorians sailed on troubled seas. Persecution was
their lot from without, while within the St. Thomas
legends finally confounded the Apostle with Christ Him-
self, and St. Thomas's Mount was as holy as Calvary
almost. Persecution was not their invariable lot, how-
ever, for in the ninth century the Malabar Christians pos-
sessed all the rights of nobility and claimed precedence
over the Nair aristocracy. Still later they and the heathen
Nairs " supplied the body-guard of the local kings, and
the Christian caste was the first to learn the use of gun-
powder and firearms. They thus became the matchlock
men of the Indian troops of Southern India, usually placed
in the van, or around the person of the prince."^

3. Downfall of the Nestorian Church. — When Vasco
da Gama reached India in 1498, he found the Nestorian
Christians a powerful military caste and highly respected
by the non-Christians. It so happened that they were
most numerous in the very provincg where the Portuguese
landed. The sight of Christians, whom Rome regarded as
schismatics, possessing their own kings and chiefs was a
challenge thrown at the feet of the zealous friars who ac-
companied the expedition. As it was not easy to win
them, both the Jews and the Nestorian Christians fell vic-
tims to the awful barbarities of the Goa Inquisition. In
1599, almost forty years after its establishment, the Nes-
torians had yielded, and for a time the Church ceased to
exist.

^ Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 286.
^ ILid., p. 291.

152 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

4. Revival. — This enforced obedience was soon re-
nounced, and the Portuguese yielding before the Dutch in
the seventeenth century, the Nestorians gradually resumed
their ecclesiastical existence, so that now the census shows
the presence of 571,327' Christians of the Syrian order.
At present they are divided into two sects, the Syrian
Catholics and the New Church, or Jacobites. While they
have thus had a continuous existence for fourteen cen-
turies at least and are the only indigenous Christian com-
munity in India, this Church has never been a very influ-
ential factor in the nation's life. " During the last half
century it has been considerably influenced by the work
and example of the Church Missionary Society, which is
established in that region. Through this influence a Re-
formed Syrian Church has come into existence, which
promises to do much for the whole community in ideals
and life. The Syrian Church has hitherto been greatly
cursed with the trinity of evils, — ignorance, ceremonial-
ism, and superstition. It was not until 1811 — at the sug-
gestion of an Englishman — that it translated part of the
Bible — the four Gospels — into the vernacular. And this
is the only translation of the Scriptures ever made and
published by the natives of India.'"

5. Crosses and Denials. — Three ancient Persian
crosses still survive in Southern India, ranking among the
oldest relics of Christianity in Asia. They contain the
inscription following: "Let me not glory except in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true Messiah
and God alone and Holy Ghost." Had the Church been
true to such a sentiment. Dr. Smith could not have penned
these words : " What Gibbon wrote, in his thirty-seventh
chapter, of their fathers is still true of them. The Nes-
torian and Eutychian controversies, which attempted to
explain the mysteries of the Incarnation, hastened the ruin

^ Statesman's Year-Book, 1903, p. 142.
* Jones, India's Problem^ p. 165.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 1 53

of Christianity in her native land. Because their faith
was weak, their message mutilated, their intellect dark-
ened, and their life selfish, it was not possible for the col-
onies of Syrian and Persian Christians, dispersed on its
southern shores, to bring India to Christ. Unpurged from
the old leaven, it was not for them to leaven the whole
lump.'"

III. Catholic Missions in India

I. Rome's Pioneers. — -John of Monte Corvino, the
apostle to China, was apparently the first Roman mission-
ary to India. " He seems to have appeared first in Persia,
in the city of Tabriz. From Persia he traveled in the
year 1291 to India, where he remained thirteen months.
He was accompanied by the Dominican, Nicholas de Pis-
torio, who died there. In different districts, he succeeded
in baptizing a hundred persons; and in the second letter
which he wrote to Europe, he declared it as his belief that
' great results might be expected to follow the preaching
of the Gospel in those regions, if substantial men of the
order of the Dominicans or Franciscans would come
there.' '"

Jordanus. — One such Dominican as John desired did
a noble work in India, Jordanus, author of the Mirahilia
Descripta, describing the wonders of the East. While he
was laboring there, more than ten thousand were con-
verted to the Catholic faith through the fervent and faith-
ful preaching of its tenets. His spirit is indicated by these
extracts from his pen : " Because we, being few in num-
ber, could not occupy or even visit many parts of the land,
many souls — wo is me ! — have perished, and exceeding
many perish for lack of preachers of the word of the

^ Smith, The Conversion of India, pp. 30, 31.

2 Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church,
vol. iv., p. 16 (Boston edition). f ^ .^ \

154 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Lord." " How many times I have had my hair plucked
out and been scourged and been stoned God Himself
knoweth; and I who had to bear all this for my sins, yet
have not attained to end my life as a martyr for the faith,
as did four of my brethren. Nay, five preaching friars
and four minors were there in my time cruelly slain for
the Catholic faith. Wo is me, that I was not with them
there!'"

2. Francis Xavier. — Catholicism's most illustrious
missionary, the famous Jesuit Francis Xavier, did his
great work for India nearly four centuries ago. He
burned out his brief Indian life, not with miracle-work-
ing, as certain of his " unwise biographers " would have
us believe, but in incessant and laborious efforts to bring
the forms of Christianity to a people who could not under-
stand his message nor the symbolism of his rites. And he
did something besides ring his bell through the villages
and proclaim a misunderstood Gospel. His practical
charity, exhibited in hospitals and in the abodes of death ;
his tireless efforts to reform godless Europeans and their
heathen wives, baptized forcibly by Albuquerque's order;
his endeavor to establish a college to train native preach-
ers who should later go forth to evangelize their country-
men; divine aspirations after a holier life and greater
nearness to his Savior ; — these are features of the life of
India's apostle which were a permanent contribution to
the cause of Christianity.

3. Malabar Rites. — Empty as were many of Xavier's
forms and superficial as was his system of evangelizing,
they were at least sincere, even if he finally left the coun-
try in disgust, " disheartened by the innumerable obstacles
he everywhere met in his apostolic career and by the
apparent impossibility of making any real converts.'"
When one reads of the horrors of Archbishop Menezes's

^ Smith, Conversion of India, p. 40.

* Abbe Dubois, quoted by Smith, Conversion of Indvj, p. 64,

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 155

Inquisition and the chicanery and fraud of the Malabar
rites, however, the foundations upon which much of
Rome's success have depended are laid bare. Caste was
catered to; Hindu terms were assumed when not true of
the user; and the acted and spoken lie of Robert de
Nobili, whereby he personated a holy ascetic from a dis-
tant region, with the forging of a fifth Veda to support
their pretensions, carried on the unholy drama. It should
be added that much of this was done contrary to the com-
mand of Rome, and mainly by members of the Jesuit Order.

4. Priests at Work. — The daily life of Catholic mis-
sionaries of to-day is thus described : " The missioner's
habitual life is to travel from village to village to admin-
ister the Holy Sacrament to his people. At all those vil-
lages, when he makes a casual or an annual visit, he is re-
ceived with triumph by the assembled Christians, who
come out to meet him with flags and native music and
conduct him to the church or chapel, where, after the first
usual prayer, he announces to the people the length of his
stay, the order of the prayers and duties of each day, and
then gives a fervent exhortation to profit by his presence
and approach the Sacraments worthily.

Order of the Days. — " The following is the usual order
of the day in a village visitation. At three in the after-
noon the catechist assembles all those who are preparing
for the Sacraments and reads to them a Preparation for
Confession, which explains the whole of the dogmatic be-
lief and also is mixed with fervent prayers to excite the
necessary sentiments in the soul. The missionary then
gives a public instruction, explaining the guilt of sin and
exhorting to contrition and amendment, and shows some
striking pictures representing death, judgment, hell, and
heaven, and the judgments of God upon sinners. The
pictures often produce more effect upon their minds than
the most fervent exhortations; and when they are well
impressed with their meaning, he shows them the crucifix

IS6 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

and explains how our merciful Lord, by His death and
suffering, has redeemed us all, and gives us all grace, if
we only choose to avail ourselves of His mercy. He
speaks to them of the love of Christ, of the infinite merits
of His precious Blood communicated to us in the Holy
Sacraments. Then the Act of Contrition and other beau-
tiful Tamil prayers, written by the ancient missionaries,
are recited. Then the confessions begin and continue
often till midnight, to be renewed again in the earliest
morning before Mass. At sunrise in the morning the bell
rings to call the people to Mass; and before it begins, the
catechist reads the prayers and instructions for the Holy
Communion, which are followed by an instruction by the
priest himself. During the Holy Sacrifice, the Acts of
Faith, Hope, Charity, and Contrition are recited aloud by
the catechist to prepare the people for receiving the Body
and Blood of our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion.
After Mass there is another exhortation to encourage all
who have approached the holy table to piety and persever-
ance. At 9 A. M. the missioner takes his own meager
breakfast and says his own prayers and office, 'and rests
a little. In the afternoon he receives the visits' of all those
who wish to speak to him or ask his advice ; he settles all
the disputes and difficulties which may be brought to his
notice by the catechist or elders of the village. He also
receives the visits and examines the motives and conduct
of those who wish to become Christians, and appoints and
arranges due means of their instruction; or else on an-
other day he baptizes the children, examines the progress
in catechism and performs the marriages. Thus in full
employment, with little spare time, the week or ten days
spent in the village pass by; and when the work is done the
Father goes to another to recommence the same labor.'"
5. Character of the Converts. — While some of the
Catholic missionaries, as Abbe Dubois, have very strongly

' Catholic Missions in Southern India, pp. 78-80.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA iI57

written concerning the defects of their converts; the fol-
lowing statement, mainly compiled from Catholic writings,
gives one an idea of the ordinary converts : " The converts
are now to be found in certain districts of South India, in
Madura, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, and other places. These
Catholic Christians, as they call themselves, are living
monuments to attest the Jesuit policy louder than Pascal's
letters or European proverbs. They wear marks on their
foreheads, as their heathen neighbors do, go to Hindu
temples on festival occasions, and bow down before the
images of pagan gods, while perhaps they inwardly repeat
Paters and Aves. Part of their marriage ceremony is per-
formed in the Christian chapel, and the couple is blessed
by the -Catholic priest. When this is done they go home,
kindle a fire and walk round it, tie the wedding knot
in the presence of Agni, and call upon that fire god to
witness the* solemn contract. Their church is divided into
compartments, so that the high-class Christians may wor-
ship .the image of Him who was the friend of outcasts,
without being contaminated by the touch of the low-
castet worshipers. . . . Three hundred years of Chris-
tianity has leftthemrronly where it found them — the slaves
of Brahman superstition and of Brahman fraud. Their
condition is worse than that of the Samaritans described
in the Second Books of Kings, ' Who feared the Lord and
worshiped their own strange gods.' '"'

6. Some Differences. — Catholic missionaries, like the
Protestants, devote great attention to girls' boarding
schools taught by nuns and furnishing a good education at
a low rate. This has resulted in gaining a number of con-
verts from among Protestants. Their higher institutions
at Calcutta, Bombay, Trichinopoli and Mangalore are of a
high order. The press is not employed as in Protestant
missions as an aggressive agency, and there is no circula-
tion of tracts. Most of the books printed are of a devo-

^ Missionary Review of the World, April, 1891, pp. 248, 249.

158 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

tional and practical character. Controversial writings are
with few exceptions directed against Protestantism. They
receive considerable additions through marriage, it being
often stipulated that the contracting parties of other creeds
shall become Catholics, or else that the children shall be
brought up in that faith. Other accessions are gained
from heathen who, in illness, make vows to some saint,
binding themselves to become Roman Catholics if they re-
cover. While it is often agreed that the expense of Cath-
olic missions is less than that of the Protestant societies,
since wives and families do not require support, and
though the missionary suffers less interruption in his
work, it should be remembered that Catholic missions lose
the immense advantage of women workers, save in the
case of nuns. They also lose the example and influence
of the Christian family.'

7. Present Strength. — According to the last census,
forty-two per cent, of the entire native Christian Church
was Roman Catholic, the number being 1,122,378 out of a
total Catholic population of 1,202,039. The remaining
Catholics are mainly in the British army or else are Eura-
sians in the three Presidency cities. As the census of 1891
shows a total of 1,315,263 Catholics, of whom 1,244,283^
were natives, the decrease in the total Catholic population
of India, not including the French and Portuguese col-
onies, was more than eight and a half per cent, for the
years 1891-1901. The decrease in the native Catholic pop-
ulation for the same period was almost ten per cent. Dur-
ing the same decade Christians of every name, including
Catholics, had increased about twenty-eight per cent. ; or
omitting the Catholics, whose number decreased during
the period, all other Christians increased more than sev-
enty-seven per cent. Yet this numerical decrease over-

1 The Missionary Conference, South India and Ceylon, iS^p, vol. ii.,
P- 339-

^Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 311, 312.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 1 59

looks the value of Rome's services to India. Sir William
Hunter, writing of the Propaganda section of the mission-
aries, says, " Their influence reaches deep into the life of
the communities among virhom they dwell.'"' In estimating
the value of Catholic labors in India, this distinction be-
tween the work of the Jesuits, particularly those of earlier
days, and that of other Orders at the present time, should
not be forgotten.

'. 8. Defects. — Another writer, who has seen much of
the missionaries and their work in South India, speaks
thus of weaknesses of the Catholic enterprise in the Em-
pire : " The marked defects of Romanism in that land
have been its concessions to, and compromise with, the re-
ligion of the land, both on the side of idolatrous worship
and of caste observance. I have discussed the subject
with Indian Roman Catholics in the villages and find that
to them the worship of saints, through their many obtru-
sive images, is practically the same as the idolatry of the
Hindus, the only marked difference being in the greater
size of the Romish images ! In like manner the Jesuit has
adopted and incorporated into his religion for the people
of that land, the Hindu caste system with all its hideous
unchristian divisions. All this makes the bridge which
separates Hinduism from Roman Catholic Christianity a
very narrow one ; and it reduces to a minimum the process
of conversion from the former faith to the latter. But an
easy path from Hinduism to Christianity means an equally
facile way of return to the ancestral faith. If the Hindu
has little to surrender in becoming a Christian, neither has
such a Christian any serious obstacle to prevent his return
to Hindu gods and ceremonies, when it suits his conven-
ience to do so. Hence it is that the new accessions to
Romanism hardly exceed the number of those who leave it
in order to resume their allegiance to the faith.""

^ Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 313.
'Jones, India's Problem, pp. 167, 168.

l6o INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

IV. Early Dutch Protestant Effort

1. Work Done. — The Dutch East India Company was
the first Protestant power to establish posts in India
proper. Before the middle of the seventeenth century it
was trading on. the mainland, and in 1652 it had built the
first Indian factory at Palakollu on the southeast coast.
In its few settlements, extending from Cochin on the
southwest to Chinsurah, north of Calcutta, it seems prob-
able that some efforts were made to evangelize the people ;
since the company " was distinctly bound by its state char-
ter to care for the planting of the Church and the conver-
sion of the heathen in the newly won possessions. Proba-
bly this was due to the remembrance of the converting
activity of the Portuguese during their earlier dominion
in the colonies ; and perhaps its aim, in the first instance,
was the winning of the outwardly Romanized natives for
Protestantism. At the same time, the Protestant doctrine
of the church power of civil rulers materially influenced
such a conception of missions.'" Whatever work was done
was undoubtedly of a piece with that carried on in Ceylon,
where force or worldly benefits practically compelled con-
version, and where " in every village the schoolhouse be-
came the church, and the schoolmaster the registrar of
documents involving the rights and succession to property.
The number of children under instruction and baptized
rose to 85,000. Nowhere was there any evidence of genu-
ine conversion, nor were there missionaries sufficient to
give simple instruction in Christian truth.'"

2. Warnings. — From the Ceylon work of the Dutch
East India Company and the efforts in India, the Chris-
tian Church may learn valuable lessons. When its power
was growing in the island world of Southeastern Asia,

^ Warneck, Outline of a History of Protestant Missions, p. 43.
' Smith, Conversion of India, pp. 78, 79.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA l6l

Professor Walaeus established at Leyden his Indian Sem-
inary for the proper preparation of missionary candidates.
After twelve years it was discontinued, partly because of
the expense to the Company, — which argument was not
met by the Reformed Church with contributions to carry it
on, — and partly because the students " addressed them-
selves more to the conversion of the heathen than suited
the colonial program of the Company.'" It is not surpris-
ing, therefore, that few of the later men had little enthu-
siasm in the work, and that the majority of them left the
field on the expiration of their five-years' contract with
the Company. Dr. George Smith, in accounting for the
failure of early Dutch missions, lays stress on means
which the missionaries practically neglected. " The watch-
words of the missionary must be these, — the vernacular
Bible, vernacular preaching, daily teaching, the conversion
of the individual, that he may in turn aggressively propa-
gate the faith which he has received."^ The opposite
course produced then, as it has later and elsewhere, what
the Amsterdam Classis of that day called sine Christo
Christiani, — Christless Christians.

V. The Danish-Halle Pioneers

I. Ziegenhalg, Pliifschau, and Grundler. — The first
Protestant missionaries from Europe to do effective work
in India were two German Pietists, Ziegenbalg and Pliit-
schau, sent out by Denmark's King, Frederick IV.
Though the Danish East India Company had held Indian
territory for eighty- five years, until these two .missionaries
arrived in 1706, nothing of importance "had been done for
their heathen charges. While Ziegenbalg was ably sec-
onded by Pliitschau and Griindler, he was the strongest of
the trio in most respects. In a letter to Chaplain Lewis of

' Warneck, Outline of a History of Protestant Missions, p. 44.
' Smith, Conversion of India, p. 80.

1 62 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

the Honorable East India Company, written nearly seven
years after their arrival, we find a surprising account of
what had so soon been accomplished. Their five charity
schools were in successful operation and were apparently
fulfilling their threefold purpose, namely : " The laying of
a foundation of true Christianity in tender souls; the prep-
aration of disciples for the future service of Christ's
Church; the bringing in the use of books among Chris-
tians in the East Indies.'" During the last six years re-
ported in this same letter the missionaries had written or
translated no less than thirty-two productions in the
" Malabarick language," and ten in Portuguese, among
them being three dictionaries, three volumes of sermons,
two hymn-books, an arithmetic, a spelling-book, and a
grammar. Most of them were religious books, however.

Phenomenal Results. — After being in India less than
five years, Ziegenbalg had translated the entire New Tes-
tament into Tamil and, at the time of his death in 1719,
the Old Testament as far as Ruth. The activity of the
first two workers may be judged by other labors of theirs
after only three years' service. " Schools had been estab-
lished; the slaves of the settlement were assembled for
religious instruction two hours daily; the German and
Portuguese residents were invited to divine service held
regularly in their behalf ; a class of catechumens, gathered
from the heathen, was being trained in the truths of the
Gospel preparatory to baptism ; converts increased rapidly ;
a church had been erected for the native congregation;
conferences had been held with Hindus and Mohamme-
dans; preaching excursions had been made into the coun-
try as far as Negapatam. . . . Three years and a half
after the arrival of the first missionaries, the native com-
munity numbered 160 persons, an amount of success truly
■ astonishing, considering the gigantic obstacles against

• Ziegenbalg and Griindler, A Letter to the Reverend Mr. Geo.
hewi^i p. 22.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA •163

which 'they had to contend.'" s'Ziegenbalg's return to
Europe and his appearance unannounced before his mon-
arch at the siege of Stralsund was dramatic in the ex-
treme/ and hardly less noteworthy was his visit to George
the First of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Bishop of London, and other distinguished personages.

Ziegenbalg's Motto. — The secret of this phenomenal
activity, of which Ziegenbalg was the leading spirit, he
thus quaintly reveals: "It has oftentimes made a com-
fortable Impression on my Mind, what Mr. N. left me for
a Memorial in my Paper-Book to this Effect: Idea nos
facti sumus Christiani, ut plus de futura, quam de hao
Vita lahoremus, ' For this reason we are made Christians,
that vve should be more bent upon the Life to come, than
upon the Present.' This is my daily Memorandum, lest
I should perhaps forget, entirely to consecrate my Life and
Actions to an invisible Eternity, minding little the World
either in its Glory and Smiles, or in its Frowns, and
Afflictions.'"

S. Schwartz. — 1h.ts,& early men had worthy successors
in such missionaries as Schultze, " a self-willed man,"
Kiernander, later the distinguished founder of the work in
Calcutta, the tireless itinerant, Gericke, and the talented
linguist, Fabricius. No man of that entire Danish-Halle
company can compare, however, with Christian Friedrich
Schwartz, — " a star of the first magnitude," as Professor
Warneck so justly calls him. Arriving in South India
in 1750, his abilities were such that in a few months he
was as " busily engaged in missionary work, as though he
had been for years accustomed to it. He sets an excellent
example to all young missionaries by commencing with a

^ Sherring^ History of Protestant Missions in India, p. 3.

^ See W. F. Stevenson's " Last Years of Ziegenbalg " in Good
Words for December, 1872.

^Propagation of the Gospel in the East: Being an Account of the
Success of Two Danish Missionaries Lately Sent to the East Indies,
p. 55-

164 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

daily catechetical class, attended by children of tender age.
He says characteristically : ' Soon after the commence-
ment of the new year, I began a catechetical hour in the
Tamil or Malabar school, with the youngest lambs, and
thus I learned to stammer with them. At the same time
I made almost daily excursions and spoke with Christians
and heathens ; though, as may be easily conceived, poorly
and falteringly.' '" His incessant and important labors as
philanthropist, statesman, and Christian missionary are
only hinted at in the inscription on his tomb at Tanjore:

To the memory of the

REV. CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH SCHWARTZ,

Born Sonnenburg, of Neumark, in the kingdom of

Prussia,

The 28th October, 1726,

And died at Tanjore the 13th February, 1798,

In the 72nd year of his age.

Devoted from his early manhood to the office of

Missionary in the East,

The similarity of his situation to that of

The first preachers of the gospel

Produced in him a peculiar resemblance to

The simple sanctity of the

Apostolic character.

His natural vivacity won the affection

As his unspotted probity and purity of life

Alike commanded the reverence of the

Christian, Mohammedan, and Hindu :

For sovereign princes, Hindu and Mohammedan,

Selected this humble pastor

As the medium of political negotiation with

The British Government ;

And the very marble that here records his virtues

Was raised by

The liberal affection and esteem of the

Rajah of Tanj-ore,

Maha Rajah Serfogee.

* Sherring, History of Protestant Missions in India, p. 20.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 1 65

3. Defects of the Danish-Halle Mission. — Almost from
the outset the Danish-Halle mission became still further
international, in that its support came largely from Eng-
land. Indeed, the labors of its missionaries might be more
appropriately considered under the Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge especially, and the
Church Missionary Society and the Leipsic Missionary
Society, which ultimately took over the workers and the
property of the Mission. The Danish King declined to
render financial aid in 1825 at a time when the rational-
izing tendencies of the King's College had seriously ham-
pered the work, and thenceforward it was no longer Da-
nish, despite its nominal existence as such until 1845. The
missionaries of this society were careful to emphasize in-
struction and cared for their new converts fairly well;
they gave the people the Bihle in the vernacular, besides
an abundance of helpful literature; in many cases they set
a godly example before the people. What they did not do
was to develop the native Church, refusing for decades to
place a native in charge of the congregations and when at
last they broke over the rule, appointing too few for care-
ful oversight. Worse than this error of judgment was their
attitude toward caste, in which they were followers of
the Romanists. The effect of lax discipline and temporiz-
ing policies is evident from the fact that, although during
the eighteenth century they had had on the field some fifty
missionaries and had won about 50,000 converts, their
work had taken no firm root; and hence it largely disap-
peared during the following century. It is probably true,
especially of the later missionaries, that heart religion was
almost wanting. Even of Kiernander Charles Grant could
write : " I was brought under deep concern about the state
of my soul. There was no person then living there from
whom I could obtain any information as to the way of a
sinner's salvation." After the veteran came to Calcutta

1 56 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Grant applied to him. " My anxious inquiries as to what
I should do to be saved appeared to embarrass and con-
fuse him exceedingly; and when I left him, the perspira-
tion was running down his face in consequence, as it ap-
peared to me, of his mental distress. He could not answer
my questions.'" With incompetent guides, some of them
holding to a merely human Jesus, the work could hardly
survive in strength.

VI. The Anglo-Saxon Beginnings

I. East India Company — A Forerunner. — The Dutch
East India Company had failed to accomplish much in the
uplifting of India. Its sister Company from England
greatly hindered the cause of true religion; though its
beneficial effects, through development of trade and the
political and administrative activities of the Company, and
through its legislation, exceeded its harmful influence.
As George Smith writes, " It was used by the Sovereign
Ruler of the human race to prepare the way and open wide
the door for the first hopeful and ultimately assuredly suc-
cessful attempt, since the Apostolic Church swept away
paganism, to destroy the idolatrous and Musalman cults
of Asia.'"

Its Chaplains. — The East India Company's helpful ser-
vice to Christianity lay in its providing chaplains for its
wards, native as well as British. Not a few of these were
thus described by Lord Teignmouth in 1795 : " Our clergy
in Bengal, with some exceptions, are not respectable char-
acters. Their situation is arduous, considering the general
relaxation of morals, from which a black coat is no se-
curity.'" Some of them, however, were important factors
in India's early evangelization. Among these were David
Brown, preacher to the elite of Calcutta society, who se-

' Smith, Conversion of India, p. 97.

'Ibid., p. 8s.

" Ibid., p. 94. . .

CHRlStlANITY IN INDIA 167

cured for Carey his professorship in Fort William Col-
lege; Claudius Buchanan, whose Christian Researches in
Asia, together with Brown's plan, drawn up in 1788, for
a Church mission in India, gave birth to the greatest of
Protestant missionary organizations, the Church Mission-
ary Society; Henry Morty», " saint and scholar," whose de-
votion, fervid zeal, and deep spirituality have led as many
to become missionaries as David Brainerd's flaming life;
Daniel Corrie, Martyn's friend and successor, who later
became the first Bishop of Madras; and Thomas Thoma-
son, a Bible translator and the father of a later Lieuten-
ant-Governor of the Northwest Provinces, to whom
" almost all the great officials and civilians of North In-
dia owed their impulse in favor of missions.'" Dr.
Warneck says of these five chaplains : " By their per-
sonal piety and their biblical preaching, by courageously
exposing and contending against the wretched circum-
stances of India, by their positive proposals for ameliora-
tion, and their open advocacy of the calumniated and per-
secuted missionaries, these men rendered pioneer service
of the most effective character to Christianity, to the
Anglican Church, and to evangelical missions in India.""

Christian Laymen. — Among the secular officials of the
Company were a number of men of high character and
true missionary spirit. Such were Charles Grant, George
Udny, and William Chambers. Grant had so great influ-
ence with Lord Cornwallis and was so at one with Wilber-
force at home, that in 1813 India's Magna Charta of mis-
sions and of popular education was passed by Parliament.
It was Udny who gave Carey asylum, when he was in
great need of a friend; while Chambers as the Company's
official Persian interpreter, began a translation of the
Scriptures before any of the Serampore trio had landed in
the country.

'.^ Bliss, Encyclopaedia of Missions, vol. i., p. 291. -
" Warneck, Outline of a History of Protestant Missions, p. 253-

l68 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Legislation. — While it is true that the Company was
often hostile to reHgion, a prevalent charge against it is
not well founded. The charge as commonly printed^ does
not even express the statement of Mr. Bensley, one of the
Directors, whose intemperate outburst did not receive the
support of his fellow Directors. As an offset to the Com-
pany's lukewarmness and opposition to missions should be
placed its beneficent legislation. " At no period in the his-
tory of the Christian Church, not even in the brilliant cen-
tury of legislation from Constantine's edict of toleration
to the Theodosian code, has Christianity been the means
of abolishing so many inhuman customs and crimes as
were suppressed in India by the Company's Regulations
and Acts in the first half of the nineteenth century. The
Christlike work kept rapid step with the progress of Chris-
tian opinion and beneficent reforms in Great Britain ; but
it was due in the first instance to the missionaries in
India."'

2. Serampore Pioneers — Thomas. — William Carey
was the leading spirit of the first British mission to India.
This cobbler and son of a wool-weaver landed at Calcutta
on the tenth of November, 1793. Ten years earlier,
however, a Christian surgeon on " The Earl of Oxford,"
East Indiaman, one John Thomas by name, had inserted
an advertisement in the Indian Gazette, calling for a
Christian who would " assist in promoting a knowledge of

'With slight variations the quotation is as follows: "In 1793 the
East India Company passed a resolution that the sending of mission-
aries into our Eastern possessions is the maddest, most extravagant, most
unwarrantable project that was ever proposed by a lunatic enthusiast.'*
See Liggins, Great Value and Success of Foreign Missions, p. 81; Pier-
son, New Acts of the Apostles, p. 260; Montgomery, Foreign Missions,
p. 25; Jones, India's Prohlem, p. 360; Gospel Missionary, March, 1901;
The Quiver, July, 1903: The Christian, August 13, 1903. ^^^hat Mr Bens-
ley actually said was: " So far from approving the clause, or listening to
it with patience, from the first moment I heard of it I considered it the
most wild, extravagant, expensive and unjustifiable project that ever was
suggested by the most visionary speculator." TheChristian, Sept. ly, 1903.
'Smith, Conversion of India, p. no.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 169

Jesus Christ in and around Bengal." Charles Grant and
his friends placed Thomas " at Goamalty, near Malda,
where he translated part of the New Testament into Ben-
gali and for three years worked successfully among the
natives. But though spiritually-minded and zealous, Mr.
Thomas was an impracticable person to deal with. He
was mystical and extravagant, irascible and bigoted ; and he
speculated so imprudently and became so involved in debts
andj liabilities, that Mr. Grant was compelled to break off
all connection with him.'" Yet it was through Thomas
that Carey was turned from the South Seas to India.

Carey. — A boy who left the farm for the shop because
he could not endure exposure to the sun would hardly have
been expected to labor, early and late for over forty years
in the heats of Calcutta and Serampore. Carey not only
did this, but he was also distinguished as naturalist, Orien-
talist, translator, author, professor, and mission adminis-
trator. When he and his medical associate. Dr. Thomas,
reached Calcutta, they found the work of Kiernander,
whose support had come from the British Society for Pro-
moting Christian Knowledge, in a comparatively prosper-
ous condition, notwithstanding the veteran's great age and
his pecuniary embarrassments. Besides the native Chris-
tian community which had been raised up, Kiernander's
charities had given Christianity a good name. Dr.
Thomas's medical work still further opened the Hindu
heart to the new missionaries. Carey's first native convert
— he had won a man of Portuguese descent some time be-
fore — was baptized at the close of 1800. This convert,
Krishna Chandra Pal, is best known through Marshman's
translation of one of his hymns, beginning, —

" O thou, my soul, forget no mors,
The friend who all thy sorrows bore.
Let every idol be forgot ;
But, O my soul, forget Him not."

^ Hoddcr, Conquests of the Cross, vol. i., pp. 232, 233.

170 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Carey's largest work was that of translator and author.
Under his superintendence, or by himself, translations of
the Scriptures were executed in no fewer than thirty-five
languages or dialects. " Of these, six were of the whole
Bible; twenty-two of the New Testament, five including
also a considerable part of the Old Testament; and seven
of portions of the New Testament. Besides the transla-
tion of the Scriptures, Dr. Carey engaged in many other
and extensive literary undertakings. He compiled and
published grammars of the Sanskrit, the Bengali, the
Marathi, the Telugu, the Kurnati, and the Sikh languages,
and dictionaries of the Bengali and Marathi. He edited
various works in the Sanskrit, Bengali, Bhotan, and Eng-
lish languages. The number, variety, and magnitude of
the works which he executed are truly astonishing.'" It
is true that he was assisted by learned native scholars, as
well as by his English associates, and it is further true that
much of the work was very poorly done, the ambition of
the Serampore missionaries being mainly quantitative.

His Character. — Dr. Carey was not a strong man in
many respects, but the sum total of his missionary quali-
ties was quite unusual. " The leading features of his char-
acter were inexhaustible patience and perseverance in the
prosecution of any work he undertook, great modesty and
humility, and above all, great simplicity of mind. Here
lay the charm of his character. This constituted its moral
strength and beauty. It was the mold into which he was
cast. It rendered him at once venerable and lovely. It
may afford encouragement to others to find, that whatever
of usefulness or reputation he attained was the result, not
of any high order, nor perhaps of any great peculiarity of
intellect, but of the unreserved, patient, and persevering
devotion of a plain understanding and a single heart to the
great objects of his life.'"

> Brown, History of the Propagation of Christianity among the
Heathen, vol. ii., p. 72. 'Ibid., pp. 69, 70. ,,.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA' jyi

i

The Marshmans. — Other distinguished members of
the Serampore community, all of whom were connected
with the Baptist Missionary Society, though for some
years they were alienated from it, were Joshua Marshman
and his wife Hannah. Joshua Marshman spent his time
more largely in regular missionary work than did Carey.
Like his more famous colleague he was a linguist of no
mean ability, extending his labors to the Chinese, so that
with the aid of Lassar, an Armenian from Macao, he pub-
lished before Dr. Morrison did in China itself a translation
of the Chinese Bible. He and his wife established a
school, first for European children and later others for na-
tives. In the latter, " the children were only taught read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic; but with the view of giving
enlargement to their minds, they were instructed in the
more popular parts of geography, astronomy, and natural
philosophy, in the leading facts of history, and the most
important principles of morality; so that the system of
education pursued in them was incomparably superior to
anything known in the Hindu schools. Christian instruc-
tion, however, formed no part of the plan; as the mission-
aries were apprehensive that this would awaken the jeal-
ousy of the natives and probably defeat the whole
scheme.'" At Serampore they had established a normal
school for training the natives to teach according to West-
ern methods, and in a short time they had a hundred
schools with 8,000 children under their care. Later they
found that such schools did not realize the expectations
which were formed of them, and they were to a great ex-
tent given up. Hannah Marshman's work for girls of for-
eign parentage led, through the object lessons afforded
and by the contributions of her pupils, to the establish-
ment in 1820 of the first school for Hindu girls in Cal-
cutta and apparently the third for native girls in all

^ Brown, History of the Propagation of Christianity among the
Heathen, vol. ii., p. 57-

172 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

India. The first one was started by Mr. May, of the
London Missionary Society, at Chinsurah two years
earlier. The Calcutta Hindu girls' school was under the
care of some of the junior missionaries of the Baptist
Missionary Society. At Serampore the missionaries had
established in 1818 the first chartered college for the
education of native young men, and this owed much to
the care of Dr. Marshman.

William Ward. — The third man in the famous Seram-
pore trio was William Ward, the first great missionary
printer. His words, " With a Bible and a press pos-
terity will see that a missionary will not labor in vain even
in India," are the key to his marvelous activity and use-
fulness. Aside from the incalculable value of his services
as a printer. Ward was a fluent preacher in Bengali and
possessed a greater knowledge of the habits and customs
of the natives than any of his colleagues. His four-vol-
ume work on the religion, manners, etc., of the Hindus is
still among the standard literature on India.

" Great Principles." — These tireless men and their less
conspicuous associates had brought into operation before
the first third of the nineteenth century had passed nearly
all those agencies which have been subsequently employed
by Indian missionaries. Yet even more important in a
sense are the mission theories and principles found in a
document drawn up in 1805, entitled, " Form of Agree-
ment respecting the Great Principles upon which the
Brethren of the Mission at Serampore think it their duty
to act in the Work of Instructing the Heathen." Omitting
the reference to their communal life, which in the end.
was not to be commended, Dr. Smith's abstract of these
principles is given as furnishing suggestions which are
of value to missionaries to-day. " (i) It is absolutely
necessary that we set an infinite value upon immortal
souls; (2) that we gain all information of the snares and
delusions in which these heathen are held; (3) that we;

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 1 73

abstain from those things which would increase their
prejudices against the Gospel; (4) that we watch all
opportunities of doing good; (5) that we keep to the
example of Paul and make the great subject of our
preaching, Christ the Crucified; (6) that the natives
should have an entire confidence in us and feel quite at
home in our company; (7) that we build up and watch
over- the souls that may be gathered; (8) that we form
our native brethren to usefulness, fostering every kind of
genius and" cherishing every gift and grace in them, espe-
cially advising the native churches to choose their pastors
and deacons from amongst their own countrymen; (9)
that we labor with all our might in forwarding transla-
tions of the sacred Scriptures in the languages of India,
and that we establish native free schools and recommend
these establishments to other Europeans; (10) that we
be constant in prayer and the cultivation of personal re-
ligion to fit us for the discharge of these laborious and
unutterably important labors. Let us often look at
Brainerd in the woods of America, pouring out his very
soul before God for the perishing heathen, without whose
salvation nothing could make him happy; (11) that we
give ourselves up unreservedly to this glorious cause.
Let us never think that our time, our gifts, our .strength,
our families, or even the clothes we wear, are our lOwn.
Let us sanctify them all to God and His cause.'"'

3. American Pioneers — ■ Judson, a Baptist. — The first
contingent from America arrived in India in June, 1812,
the party including Mr. and Mrs. Judson and Rev. Samuel
Newell, with his better-known girl-wife, Harriet Atwood
Newell. Of the first of these a distinguished Scotch
authority, who calls him " the greatest of all American
missionaries," thus writes: " Adoniram Judson is sur-
passed by no missionary since the Apostle Paul in self-
devotion and scholarship, in labors and perils, in saintli-

^ Smith, Short History of Christian Missions, p. 166 (1890 edition).

1174 India and christian opportunity

ness and humility, in the result of his toils on the future
of an empire and its multitudinous peoples. He took
possession of Burma for Christ, when only a strip of its
coasts had become the nucleus of the eastern half of
the British Empire of India, and he inspired his native
country to found two great missionary societies.'" Being
strongly influenced by the work of his fellow Baptists
at Serampore, he wrought out in Burma under the Ameri-
can Baptist Missionary Union a very similar program.
His carefully translated Burman Bible is a more creditable
monument than many of the hasty and imperfect versions
of the Serampore brotherhood; for Judson had a "lust
for finishing."

Gordon Hall, a Congregationalist. — Though five men
had sailed to India in 1812 as the missionaries of the
American Board, Judson and Rice became Baptists on
their arrival or en route. Of the remaining three, Gordon
Hall was the strongest man. Until the new charter of
the East India Company went into effect more than a
year later, he and his associates were without any legal
standing in India and were in direst straits; but from
1814 onward they were at liberty to prosecute their work
at Bombay on the west coast, thanks to the efforts of the
now venerable Charles Grant. Hall's thirteen years of
labor brought into temples and bazaars alike the Gospel
message and gave the Marathi New Testament to many
millions. " No missionary in Western India," wrote one
some years ago, " has ever been more respected among
the Brahmans and higher classes for his discussions and
pulpit discourses.'' Among the strongest influences in
awakening America to her missionary obligation in the
early part of the last century were his letters to Andover
Seminary students and his tract, " The Conversion of the
World; or the Claims of Six Hundred Millions." The
work which his associates at Bombay found most useful
* Smith, Conversion of India, p. 151.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA I75

was that of literature and the press, which in a small way
was to Western India what the work of Serampore was
to Eastern India.

John Scudder, Dutch Reformed. — Five years before
the veteran Schwartz died, a child was bom in New Jersey
who was destined to head an illustrious family of Ameri-
can missionaries to India. When Dr. John Scudder was
waiting one day in the ante-room of a lady patient, he
picked up Gordon Hall's tract just mentioned, and seven
years after Hall had sailed he took passage, under the
American Board, for the same land, though it was via
Ceylon, where he spent a number of years in medical mis-
sionary service. At Madras he established a work of great
value. " No stronger, more versatile, or more successful
missionary pioneer ever evangelized a people as healer,
preacher, teacher, and translator, in season and out of
season. He lived in praying and working till, although
he knew it not, he realized his ambition even in this
world, ' to be one of the inner circle around Jesus.' Such
a man had sons and children's children like himself to
the fourth generation. There was not a town in South-
eastern India which had not heard the Gospel of Christ
from his lips. There was not a village to which the pub-
lications of his Tamil press had not penetrated, while his
descendants worked by his side and took up his mantle.'"
At home he was especially distinguished as the children's
favorite missionary. It is said that he addressed at least
100,000 Sunday-school children in 1843, many of whom
in later years became missionaries themselves, largely
because of his early influence. Though sent out by the
American Board, he belonged to the Reformed (Dutch)
Church in America, which until 1857 worked in co-opera-
tion with the American Board. He and some of his
descendants are counted as the brightest stars in the
galaxy of missionaries whom his Church has sent afield.

^ Smith, Conversion of India, pp. 164, i6s.

176 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

VII. Indian Christianity of the Last Century

1. Other Early Societies. — In the preceding sketch
reference has been made to pioneer work and to one or-
ganization or society from each Church. This plan has
prevented any mention of the early workers of the Lon-
don Missionary Society, which entered India in the per-
son of Mr. Forsyth a year before Marshman and his as-
sociates landed at Calcutta, or of that of the Christian
Knowledge Society, which in addition to supporting
Danish-Halle missionaries, had commissioned Ringel-
taube at the time of Marshman's appointment. For the
same reason, no mention is made here of the Church Mis-
sionary Society, whose first India representatives began
work in Madras only two years after the American Board's
missionaries arrived at Calcutta; nor can anything be
said of the valuable services of three other important so-
cieties, all of which had begun their work before the first
quarter of last century had closed, namely that of the
English Wesleyans, and of the Scotch Presbyterians, and
of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For-
eign Parts. In what has been said of this pioneer stage,
the reader will find the germs of all subsequent work
done by the missionaries of the Empire. Later chapters
will set forth methods and problems confronting the
nearly one hundred Protestant societies laboring in India,
as well as state the results of missionary work and pre-
sent the opportunities alluring them onward. Only a few
general remarks need be added to this division of the
subject.

2. Seventy-five Years. — Dividing the remainder of the
century into periods of twenty-five years each, we find
that of the societies still at work in India thirteen entered
upon their work between 1826 and 1850. Four of them
were American, five were British, and four were Ger-

Central Young Men's Chiistian Association Building, Madras

Young Women's Christian Association Building, Bombay

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA I77

man. During this period two women's societies entered
the field, the Church of Scotland Women's Association
and the Women's Society for Christian Female Education
in Eastern Countries, of Berlin. During the years 1851-
1875 eight American societies, nine from Great Britain,
two from Denmark, two from Germany, and three organ-
ized in India itself placed its workers in the field, — a
total of twenty-four societies. Since 1876 about forty new
societies have entered the Empire, all of them being repre-
sented by a comparatively small number of missionaries
except the Christian and Missionary Alliance of the United
States, the Presbyterians of Canada, the Evangelical Na-
tional Society of Sweden, and the Brecklum Evangelical
Lutheran Society of Schleswig-Holstein. During these
years three new forms of effort were represented for the
first time in the Empire: The India Sunday-school
Union, which from 1876 has cared for the Sunday-school
interests of the land ; the work for young men and women
as carried on by representatives of the Young Men's
Christian Associations of North America and Great Bri-
tain, and of the World's Young Women's Christian Asso-
ciation; and the United Society of Christian Endeavor.

3. Sepoy Mutiny. ■ — One event in these years did much
to change the current of missionary effort. " In the first
century's history of the evangelical conversion of India,"
writes George Smith, " the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 opened
a new period. It tested by persecution the reality and the
character of the faith of the converts. It proved to be a
call to the conscience of Christendom. The number of
white Christians known or believed to have been butchered
by the mutineers and their brutal agents was 1,500, of
whom thirty-seven were missionaries, chaplains, and their
families. . . . Not one instance can be cited of failure
to confess Christ by men and women, very often of weak
physique and but yesterday of the same faith as their
murderers. The only known cases in which life was pur-

178 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

chased by denial were those of one officer of mixed
blood and some band boys of Portuguese descent and re-
ligious profession.'" More than that : " The lurid light
shed upon the condition of India by the Mutiny and the
increased knowledge of and interest in the country thus
produced, led many Christians in the United Kingdom
and in America to perceive what great responsibilities
were laid upon the English by the possession of India,
and to resolve to endeavor to perform the duties arising
therefrom. New energy was diffused into every mis-
sionary society already laboring in India, and fresh or-
ganizations were formed to enable the many open doors
to be entered."^ With the assumption by Queen Victoria
of dominion in India after the Mutiny, Christian India
came into being.

4. Censuses, 18^2-ipoi. — The growth of Christianity of
every form in a generation may be seen by a comparison
of religious statistics from 1872, when the first census
of all India was taken, to the last one of 1901. The Portu-
guese and French possessions are not here considered, but
if they were added the present Christian population would
be increased by about 350,000. In 1872 there were in
India, including Burma, 1,517,997 Christians. In 1881
they numbered 1,862,525, an increase of 22.7 per cent. ; in
1891 they had increased to 2,284,380, a gain of 22.6 per
cent.; and in 1901 there were 2,923,241 Christians, a gain
during the decade of 28 per cent. Comparing the Chris-
tians of 1872 with those of 1901, their number had in-
creased in twenty-nine years 92.6 per cent." The increase
of Protestants during this period is still greater, as is
shown in the last chapter.

5. Protestants in ipoi. — Still confining ourselves to the
government returns of 1901, the Protestant community

^ Smith, Conversion of India, pp. 137, 138.

^ St. Clair- Tisdall, India, Its History, Darkness and Dawn, p. 108.
' See Hunter, Indian Empire, p. 319 and Statesman's Year-Book,
1903, P- 141-

CHRISTIANITY IJST INDIA 1 79

in India at the time of the last census, excluding the
Eurasians and European and allied races, numbered 866,-
985. The church affiliations of these native Protestant
Christians were as follows:

Anglicans .... 305,907 Presbyterians . . . 42,799

Baptists 216,743 Congregationalists . 37,313

Lutherans .... 153,768 Salvationists . . . 18,847

Methodists. . . . 68,451 Minor sects . . . 23,157

An English writer, commenting on these statistics, re-
marks : " It will be noticed that nearly half the Christians
under ' Minor sects ' are stated to belong to the ' London
Mission.' This is evidently the London Missionary So-
ciety, and the number, 10,321, should be added to the
37;3I3 Congregationalists, wKo otherwise are surprisingly
few. Moreover, we expect that about 18,000 out of the
59,810 ' Protestants ' of Travancore who are credited to
the Church of England really belong to the London Mis-
sionary Society, and that these also should be added to
the Congregationalists. But probably some of those
whose denomination is ' not returned ' should be credited
to the Church of England, so that we do not suppose
the total number of Anglicans is overstated.'"

6. Government and Christianity. — The British power
in India provides to some extent for the religious needs
of its wards. This it does " with a view, not to converting
the natives, but to provide for the spiritual wants of its
European soldiers and officials, as it provides for their
medical requirements. . . . The Indian Government
maintains no Roman Catholic establishment. But certain
of the thirty Roman Catholic bishops receive allowances
for furnishing ecclesiastical military returns and certain
priests for services rendered to the troops. . . . The
government ecclesiastical staff is distributed among the
military and official centers, while the other societies

C~ '■Church Missionary Intelligencer, July, 1902, p. 501.

l8o INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

endeavor to supply the wants of the smaller stations, par-
ticularly the little clusters of Europeans along the lines
of railway and in the planting districts. Taken together
and including Roman Catholics and Protestants, they min-
istered in 1891 to 168,000 Europeans and 79,842 Eurasians,
according to Sir Thomas Hope's tables'; total, 247,842.'"
This provision for Europeans should be remembered, when
the criticism is brought against missionaries by travelers,
that they neglect their own people in their zeal for
evangelizing the natives.

7. Advance in a Century. — The last chapter will show
in some detail the technical gains of the last century; but
there are some general points that may be mentioned here,
which show the progress in Christian conceptions during
this period. The nineteenth century opened with the new
emphasis of the brotherhood of believers, a brotherhood
that would not brook the views and practices of Catholics
and some of the Protestants of the previous century.
While caste still is one of Protestantism's sternest prob-
lems, it has practically disappeared as a factor to be winked
at or even encouraged. Similarly, the compromise with
Hinduism which Catholicism had been guilty of and which
influenced Protestants early in the century by making
them fear to antagonize native religious views, has given
place to a better understanding of the strong points of
native religions and the true relation to them of Chris-
tianity. Missionaries no longer hesitate to use native
terms of religious import, and their method of approach
is more Pauline and less unreasonable. The ceremonial
and formal factors in Christianity have largely changed
during the century, and the more spiritual elements of
the Christ life are placed at the forefront. If the dangers
of the life beyond for the unrepentant are less often
preached than they were a hundred years ago, the life
which is hid with Christ in God and which is a prepara-

' Hunter, Indian Empire, pp. 319, 320.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA l8l

tion for the bliss of heaven is more insisted on. Coopera-
tion and fellowship have made rapid advances during the
period and thus markedly differentiate the work now from
that of seventy-five years ago. Educational work and
the value of literature, which Protestants have appre-
ciated from the outset, have made vast gains even during
the last thirty years.

8. An Official Estimate. — What Christianity has ac-
complished may be expressed quite as eloquently in general
terms as in Arabic numerals. One such estimate of the
work of Christians is found in the Report of the Secretary
of State for India, presented to the House of Commons
in 1892 : " The various lessons which they inculcate have
given to the people at large new ideas, not only on purely
religious questions, but on the nature of evil, the obliga-
tions of law, and the motives by which human conduct
should be regulated. Insensibly a higher standard of
moral conduct is becoming familiar to the people, espe-
cially to the young, which has been set before them not
merely by public teaching, but by the millions of printed
books and tracts, which are scattered widely through the
country. This view of the general influence of their teach-
ing and of the greatness of the revolution which it is
silently producing, is not taken by the missionaries alone.
It has been accepted by many distinguished residents in
India, and experienced officers of the Government.'"

1 Quoted by Thompson and Johnson, British Foreign Missions, p. 39.

VI

WAYS OF WORKING

The preceding chapter has shown the main lines of
work in use among Catholic and Protestant missionaries.
A closer examination of them is requisite to a proper
knowledge of missions in India. In the brief exposition
here attempted, present methods are dealt with ; since they
embody the best things from previous experiments and are
without certain factors of doubtful value.

I. Evangelizing the Masses

I. Indoor Preaching. — While preaching in mission
halls to the unevangelized is not as prominent as in mis-
sion lands in cooler countries, it is nevertheless a promi-
nent feature of Indian evangelistic effort. There is less
noise there than on the street, and the people are under
better control, since the missionary is on his own ground!
Moreover, seats or mats are an inducement for a longer
stay than in street preaching. A compromise between the
street and a hall is the verandah of the latter, which gath-
ers a company more easily than an enclosed room. The
best audiences are secured in the evening, when bright
lights and attractive singing of Christian hymns set to
native tunes quickly call together a good congregation.
Some of the most effective work of the preaching hall is
the leverage gained through its use as a reading and book
room for part of the day and as a place for quiet personal
interviews after the audience has been dismissed.

182

WAYS OF WORKING 183

2. Bazaar Preaching. — It is on the busy streets of an
Indian city that one is most put to the test as a preacher,
if the mela preaching is left out of the count. The hag-
gling of buyers and sellers, the bustle of people coming and
going, the attacks of a hostile Brahman in a public place,
are factors which make the task most difficult to a for-
eigner using an unfamiliar language. Dr. Stewart thus
describes the work in the Punjab: "It must not be sup-
posed by any that quietness is the distinguishing charac-
teristic of a bazaar audience. Far from it. Many persons,
indeed, listen respectfully and make no signs of either ap-
proval or disapproval. But it is different with others. A
few exhibit astonishment at the good news. Some, espe-
cially Hindus, will cry out, ' That's all true,' or ' The Sahib
is right,' or ' Your religion is good for you, and ours is
good for us ; let every one follow the path that his fathers
trod.' Some will ask questions — often of the most diffi-
cult or irrelevant character — and try to embarrass the
preacher, or get up a laugh at his expense. Some —
Mohammedans, bigots, or Aryans, for instance — will
present objections, or flatly contradict the speaker, reading
perhaps out of the Koran, or an infidel book, to establish
their points; and frequently bystanders of this class will
try to break up the meeting, or turn it into an assemblage
for the propagation of their own religious views. Occa-
sionally, too, they carry their violence so far that the police
are asked to interfere and quell disturbance. As might be
supposed, therefore, every one does not make a good ba-
zaar preacher. Ready wit, a quick ear, and a nimble
tongue are necessary for success in this capacity; also
that mysterious power by which men can naturally over-
awe opposition and keep a restless audience under con-
trol.'"

3. Itinerating. — A wider form of evangelism is ef-
fected through journeying from place to place and pur-

^ Stewart, Life and Work in India, pp. 157, is8.

184 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

suing in villages and towns a work similar to that just
named. The romance of itineration comes from the tent
form of life. This, however, is expensive; since, if it is
thoroughly done, the party must take a number of tents and
the proper furnishings. On arriving at a village, they
are pitched near by, and there the work is carried on, if
a preaching pavilion has been provided. As the party may
remain from two days to a week, systematic visitation of
the villages near may be pretty thoroughly done. Often
missionaries, instead of taking tents, go to the public rest-
house of the places visited; and by living in the midst of
the people, they are able to do more satisfactory work, as
well as reduce the expense. The most fruitful plan, how-
ever, is that commonly adopted after itineration has se-
cured a regular constituency and settled forms of work.
There will then be in most of the villages visited some
room or building belonging to the mission, or loaned them
by native Christians, which they make their headquarters.
When the work has reached this stage, evangelistic effort
becomes somewhat subordinate. " The whole round of
missionary duties, as far as possible, must be carried along
with the party and fully discharged. Schools must be in-
spected; native Christians must be examined; new con-
verts must be baptized ; communion services must be held ;
homes for village workers and houses for village churches
must be secured; reports must be received or prepared;
accounts must be kept; correspondence must not be neg-
lected; and mothers must see to the instruction of their
children.'"

Drawbacks. — Lest any should regard missionary tour-
ing as a pleasure jaunt, another quotation is added: "Some-
times the sun at midday makes it too hot for people to re-
main in tents and drives them under the shade of an um-
brageous tree. Occasionally rain pours down in such
quantities that the tents and much of their contents are

^ Stewart, Life and Work in India, p. 191.

Itinerating Tent and Outfit — Haidarabad

Street Preaching — Women's Work

WAYS Of WORKING 185

completely saturated, and it becomes impossible either to
move the encampment or to occupy it in comfort. Some-
times the wind and dust storms give a good deal of trou-
ble. Now and then village officers are unfriendly and
greatly obstruct our movements. Sometimes thieves enter
our tents and carry away valuables. . . . Sometimes
the night is made fearful by the howling of jackals, dogs,
and even wolves. Now and then the smells of a locality
become unendurable. Sometimes mad dogs, or crazy
fakirs, give great annoyance, especially to ladies. . . .
Often, too, the annoyance felt from a continual stream
of native visitors becomes painful.'"

Band Work. — Instead of going in a company with a
single center of work, members of an itinerating band of
missionaries may follow the plan described by Rev. Mr.
Meadows of the Church Missionary Society in South In-
dia. " There were three of us English missionaries. We
lived in the north of Tinnevelly and had a district that
was about 1,400 square miles in extent. We purposely
made it small, in order that we might be able to go back-
wards and forwards all through, again and again; and
this district of about 1,400 square miles contained about
1,400 villages and towns and a population of a little more
than 270,000 people. We lived in our tents all the year
round, though it was very hot indeed at some times of the
year. Each of us had his own tent, and each tent was
pitched at a distance of eight or ten miles from the other.
We had each to help us a native brother ; and these native
brethren, too, had their own tents, and they also had their
tents ten miles perhaps apart from each other. We always
met together once a fortnight in order to confer and pray
together. We stayed at a place a week, and every morning
and every evening we got on our horses and rode to a
village and preached in the street.'"'

1 Stewart, Life and Work in India, pp. 191, igz.

'Report of the Centenary Conference, London, 1888, vol. ii., pp. 39, 40.

l86 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

'Native Bands. — A modified form of the above method
is that by which a company of native workers, usually
theological students or catechists, go out under the lead-
ership of a single missionary. Mr. G. S. Eddy thus
speaks of the work of the band which he had in charge:
" We are out among the villages, far from railway or
white man, with a score of earnest theological students,
preaching from morning to night from village to village
in the joy of carrying the Gospel to a thousand souls a
day. We spend the hot noon hours studying in the tents
in the shade of some little grove. Every few days we
strike camp and move on until our month's itineracy
is over. So we go on from month to month through the
ten stations of the Madura Mission till our year's work is
done. . . . The village, like an isolated republic, is
isolated and self-sufficient, as ignorant of all the world
as it in turn by the world is ignored, unknown. The
sun marks the time of its uneventful lazy hours as the
children play and the dogs sleep in the sunshine. Sud-
denly every dog is awake, and with the din of howls and
barking arouse the village at our arrival. We come
with our own viohn and a song and are followed down
the street by the curious crowd. Arrived at the market-
place we continue to sing till all the people are gathered.
Then one by one we try to tell the simple story that can
change their lives. The people sit around chewing betel
leaf, or cleaning their teeth for the morning with a stick,
or nodding approval as we proceed; for of all the people
of the world, they are the most gentle and tolerant. But
spiritually their life is sunken and sordid and needy be-
yond all words. The simplest ideas of spiritual religion
seem beyond them, except as God supernaturally reveals
them as we preach. . . . We preach, and one strikes
his stomach — the center of all his Hfe and thoughts —
and says, 'Will your God give us food without work?'
' Food ' and ' work ' they understand, but not ' sin ' and

.WAYS OF WORKING 187

' salvation.' What can we do for such degraded people ?
Save them ! '" During the following year Mr. Eddy could
report more than a thousand professed conversions in this
and more settled work.°

Stereopticon Work. — An important auxiliary used in
itineration, as well as at the stations, is the stereopticon.
This makes night work, when the multitudes are at leisure,
the most profitable form of effort. When the people are
argumentative or hostile, the lantern pictures secure
quiet. The late Norman Russell of Canada makes the
value of this form of teaching very clear, as also his
way of using the stereopticon. " Usually on entering
a large town or village, we take a few photographs of
familiar scenes, — the bazaar, the temple, or a group of
schoolboys — and, preparing slides at our tents, throw
them upon the screen, much to the delight of the amazed
villagers, who are led thereby to give all the more atten-
tion to the Gospel pictures. . . . It is marvelous, the
widespread fascination of the lantern meeting. Dignified
officials, who would not deign to pause and listen to a
bazaar talk, will have their chairs brought out and give
close attention to the explanation of the pictures. I re-
member one evening a number of haughty Brahmans so
eager to be present at our meeting as to sit down under
the shelter of the darkness with low-caste Chamars and
on the latter's veranda. . . . The villager is fond of
anything in the nature of tamasha; he loves to see the
changing colors on the sheet; the pictures aid his dull
sense in understanding the unfamiliar story; and he will
stand patiently for an hour or more in the chill atmos-
phere of the market-place to see and hear the Gospel
message.'" At the great melas, or gatherings for com-
mercial purposes or to celebrate some religious event,

^ Missionary Review of the World, April, 1902, pp. 262, 263.

' Intercollegian, October, 1903, p. 4.

' Russell, Village Work in India, pp. 86, 87.

150 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

the lantern furnishes an attraction almost equal to the
mela itself. It thus supplements the work in the mission-
ary's preaching tent and has the additional advantage of
securing an even larger audience and greater quiet.

4. Visiting Homes. ■ — ■ A feature of the -work of reach-
ing the masses with the Gospel, which in many sections
is being more emphasized than bazaar and mela preach-
ing, is that of house to house visitation, alluded to in
connection with itineration. Though women missionaries
adopt this method more often than men, it can be done
by gentlemen. Yet, as Bishop Thoburn remarks, " the
most successful workers are comparatively obscure Hin-
dustani preachers, who go and sit down at the doorstep
of a native hut, or perhaps in a courtyard into which a
number of little humble dwellings open, and talk with the
people, sing, if permitted to do so, and possibly engage
in prayer with them. The converts are often won after
long personal intercourse, one by one, by these workers.
In other words, our preaching in India seems to be drift-
ing back more and more toward early standards.'"

5. Madras Resolutions. — At the Decennial Confer-
ence at Madras, held in 1902, the following convictions
as to the important place of evangelistic effort in the
missionary scheme were expressed : " Your committee is
not unmindful that there are many useful methods of
evangelistic work and would encourage all ways and
means of carrying the Gospel to the people. Mission
halls, Bible classes, house to house visitation, quiet work
in the wards of the town or city, — all these and many
other ways have been blessed. But whatever m-ethod may
be used, it should not be forgotten that the masses of
the people live in the villages, are cultivators of the soil,
and are illiterate. In order to reach the masses, it is
necessary to itinerate extensively and to preach much
in the open air. For this work able men, who are familiar

^ Thoburn, India and Malaysia, p. 242.

WAYS OF WORKING I89

with the languages, religions, and customs ot the people,
and who can ' rightly divide the word of truth,' should be
selected. . . . This work can be carried on mainly in
two ways, namely, by the location of qualified evangelists
in stations from which a number of villages may be
regularly visited, and also by the organizing of itinerating
bands working under competent leaders.'"

II. Work foe India's Women

I. Lady Missionaries and Bible Women. — Closely akin
to the evangelistic work for the general community just
named is that for the women. The importance attached
to this form of effort may be judged from the fact that
during the past decade the number of foreign and Eura-
sian women missionaries in India and Burma has increased
almost seventy per cent., and for the first time they out-
number the corresponding male agency. During the
same period the Hindu and Burman Bible women in-
creased over fifty-eight per cent., and are more than four
times as numerous as the foreign and Eurasian force. As
for their efficiency, the Madras Conference report says :
" In India it is probable that the larger half of aggressive
work can be better done by women, and it is a matter
of thankfulness that the women workers outnumber the
men."'

Their Task and Its Importance. — The task awaiting
these women and the lady missionaries is suggested by
Dr. Stewart's words, which are almost as true of all
India as of the Punjab: "Perhaps twice as many men
as women have been baptized. This has been due, not
only to the greater intelligence of the male sex in that
country and the more frequent opportunities which they
have had for getting light, but also probably to the more

^ Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. yy^ 78.
^ Ibid., p. 220,

190 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

conservative character of the female sex and their greater
attachment to the customs, the superstitions, and the re-
ligions of their ancestors. Old social ties, too, have per-
haps been stronger in their case.'" The same writer
shows its importance both from the native and the mis-
sionary view-point. He begins by quoting from a vernacu-
lar newspaper, which is speaking of the educated native:
" ' In public he may be a Demosthenes in oratory, or a
Luther in reform; in his home he is but a timid, crouch-
ing Hindu, yielding unquestionable submission to the
requisitions of a superstitious family. Between husband
and wife there can be no rational conversation, no hearty
exchange of thought and sympathies, no cooperation in
really useful undertakings, and no companionship. They
can not possibly agree, and so long as the illiterate wife
governs the household according to her orthodox preju-
dices, the nation can not make any real advancement.'
And these remarks are especially true in regard to re-
ligious progress. So long as mother, sister, wife, and
daughter remain in darkness, so long must husband,
brother, and son virtually remain so too. None are more
ready to drive away from home a Christian convert than
the female members of his own household. . . . ' When
we get the women of India on our side, with a Christian
intelligence to guide them and with warm sympathy for
their husbands, then,' says a distinguished missionary,
' the battle will be won.' '"

2. Visiting Low-castes. — The average experience of
an initial visit in the low-caste home is vividly pictured in
Miss Carmichael's Kipling-like but profoundly mission-
ary volume : " We have just come back from a Pariah
village. Now see it all with me. Such a curious little
collection of huts thrown down anywhere ; such half-
frightened, half- friendly faces; such a scurrying in of

' Stewart, Life and Work in India^ p. 243.
'Ibid., p. 175.

WAYS OF WORKING I9I

some and out of others; and we wonder which house we
would better make for. We stop before one a shade
cleaner than most, and larger and more open.

May we come in ?' Chorus, ' Come in ! oh, come
in ! ' and in we go. It is a tiny narrow slip of a room.
At one end there is a fire burning on the ground; the
smoke finds its way out through the roof, and a pot of
rice set on three stones is bubbling cheerfully. No fear
of defilement here. They would not like us to touch
their rice, or to see them eating it, but they do not mind
our being in the room where it is being cooked. At the
other end of the narrow slip there is a goat-pen, not
very clean; and down one side there is a raised mud
place where the family apparently sleep. This side and
the two ends are roofed by palmyra palm. It is dry and
crackles at a touch, and you touch it every time you
stand up ; so bits of it are constantly falling and helping
. to litter the open space below.

" Five babies at different stages of refractoriness are
sprawling about on this strip of floor; they make noises
all the time. Half a dozen imbecile-looking old women
crowd in through the low door and stare and exchange
observations. Three young men with nothing particu-
lar to do lounge at the farther end of the platform near
the goats. A bright girl, with more jewelry on than
is usual among Pariahs, is tending the fire at the end
near the door; she throws a stick or two on as we enter
and hurries forward to get a mat. We sit down on the
mat, and she sits beside us, and the usual questions are
asked and answered by way of introduction. There is a
not very clean old woman diligently devouring betel;
another with an enormous mouth, which she always
holds wide open; another with a very loud voice and a
shock of unspeakable hair. But they listen fairly well till
a goat creates a diversion by making a remark, and a
baby — a jolly little scrap in its nice brown skin and a

192 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

bangle — yells, and every one's attention concentrates upon
it. The goat subsides, the baby is now in its mother's
arms; so we go on where we left off, and I watch the
bright young girl and notice that she listens as one who
understands. She looks rather superior; her rose-
colored seeley is clean, and two large gold jewels are in
each ear; she has a little gold necklet round her throat
and silver bangles and toe-rings. All the others are
hopelessly grubby and very unenlightened ; but they listen
just as most people listen in church, with a sort of patient
expression. It is the proper thing to do.

" I am talking to them now, and till I am half-way
through nobody says anything, when suddenly the girl
remarks, ' We have ten fingers, not just one ' ; which is
so astonishing that I stop and wonder what she can be
thinking of. I was talking about the one sheep lost out
of one hundred. What has that got to do with one finger
and ten ? She goes on to explain : ' I have heard all
this before. I have a sister who is a Christian, and once
I stayed with her, and I heard all about your religion,
and I felt in my heart it was good. But then I was mar-
ried ' — ' tied,' she said — ■ * and of course I forgot about
it; but now I remember, and I say if ten of our people
will join and go over to your way, that will be -well ; but
what would be the use of one going? What is the use of
one finger moving by itself?' . . .

" ' If ten of you had cholera, and I brought you cholera
medicine, would you say, ' I won't take it unless nine
others take it too ? ' I replied. She laughs, and the others
laugh, but a little uneasily. They hardly like this reference
to the dreaded cholera ; death of the body is so much more
tremendous in prospect than death of the soul. ' You
would take it, and then the others, seeing it do you good,
would perhaps take it too ' ; and we try to press home the
point of illustration. But the point pricks, and pridking
is uncomfortable,

Zenana Workers — North India

Bible Woman and Pupils— Soutli India

WAYS OF WORKING I93

" The three men begin to shuffle their feet and talk
about other things; the old mother-in-law proposes betel
all round and hands us some grimy-looking leaves with a
pressing invitation to partake. The various onlookers
make remarks, and the girl devotes herself to her baby.
But she is thinking; one can see old memories are stirred.
At last with a sigh she gets up, looks round the little
indifferent group, goes over to the fireplace, and blows up
the fire. This means we had better say salaam ; so we say
it, and they say it, adding the usual ' Go and come.'

" It will be easier to help these people out of their low
levels than it will be to help their masters of the higher
walks of life. But to do anything genuine or radical
among either set of people is never really easy. ' It takes
the Ideal to blow a hair's-breadth off the Dust of the
Actual.' It takes more. It takes God. It takes God to do
anything anywhere.'"^

3. In Zenanas. — The work for those in genuine zena-
nas differs from that described mainly in the great for-
mality of wealthy homes and in the smaller number who
can be reached at a given visit. Moreover, it may be
necessary for the missionary to offer inducements, such as
giving lessons in fancy-work and the more powerful allure-
ment of -teaching the inmates to read, in order to be as-
sured of a continuously open door. Naturally, the ladies
of these secluded homes are far more ignorant of the
outer world than their poor neighbors, and hence more
time must be taken to answer questions of curiosity. Na-
tive Bible women are not as acceptable as foreign ladies
in such work, since many aristocratic women wish noth-
ing but the best, and also because native workers can not
satisfy their curiosity as well as one from across the sea.

4. Teaching in Homes. — Teaching in the homes can be
best accomplished in zenanas, for the reason that wealthy

^ Carmichael, Things As They Are: Mission Work in Southern
India, pp. 57-60,

194 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

ladies have greater leisure ; yet it is also done in the poor-
est families. Where it is possible to induce girls to attend
a mission school, they are not taught at home; but there
are very many who can not or will not attend such schools,
and the work must be carried to them. One can assume
that what the women and girls know is scarcely more than
a child of six knows in Christian lands, and that methods
— barring those of the kindergarten — will be successful
that are in use for children at home. Most of the teaching
done is with the object of enabling the women and girls
to read for themselves, and to impart a knowledge of the
Bible. This latter knowledge is not so much desired, and it
may be necessary to first make them feel its value. A sin-
gle illustration of how this may be done is quoted from
Miss Bernard of Poena. " In the villages there is usually
some idol shrine in sight. I have found this arrest atten-
tion : ' I see a god there ; yours, is it not so ? Some one
died in your village yesterday or last week. Did that god
of yours send for him ? Did he go to him ? ' The answer
is always, ' No, not to him, but to the Upper God.' ' Not
your god ; you too are going to die some day ; you will have
to go to that Upper God. Do you know Him? Will you
come with me to England?' You say, 'No, I don't know
any one there ; how can I ? ' ' True ; but you will have to
go to an unknown God, in an unknown country, by an un-
known way. Had you not better in time learn to know
Him.' '"

in. Educational Work

I. Vernacular Schools — Aims. — So soon as the forms
of effort above described have brought forth their legiti-
mate fruit, there is laid upon the Church the necessity for
developing the material furnished. Christian education

' Report of the Third Decennial Missionary Conference, held at
Bombay, i8y2'^3, p. 318.

WAYS OF WORKING 195

renders this service, and it also is a direct feeder to the
Church. The main objects of the vernacular schools, as
distinguished from those in which English is the medium
of instruction, are thus set forth in the Madras Conference
Report : " According to the testimony of the various mis-
sions, vernacular education serves a twofold purpose in
mission economy. A vernacular school is one of the best
means of opening up evangelistic work in a village. The
high respect in which a teacher is held in this country
and the great desire which the people have for education
give the teacher in a village school a unique opportunity ;
and, if he is the right kind of a man, he can do much in
helping to extend the Kingdom of Christ. The Wesleyan
missions of Ceylon estimate that, directly or indirectly,
they owe about sixty-five per cent, of their converts to the
vernacular schools. The other purpose which vernacular
schools serve is to fit our Christians to read the Word of
God. And again, by learning to read and write. Christians
, will be able to raise their position in society and make
themselves more useful members of the community. We
urge a sustained effort to educate all our Christian youth
to read and write at least. We recognize that, in the in-
creased attention which Government is paying to primary
education at present, there is a great opportunity for mis-
sions to extend their work in this direction."*

Varieties. — The vernacular schools usually are for a
single sex, but are sometimes intended for both boys and
girls, the mixed school being more economical, as well as
furnishing a girl with an escort in her brother. Some of
these institutions are conducted in the interests of the non-
Christians, while others are strictly confined to children
of Christians. On the whole, however, separate schools
for boys and girls and open to Christians and non-Chris-
tians alike are most satisfactory. There are also govern-
ment schools and many others conducted by missionaries

^ Report of the Madras Conference, ig02, p. 87.

196 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

through grants-in-aid, received from the Government.
This assistance coming from the state makes it necessary
for those schools receiving it to conform the curriculum
to government standards. While this affects the second-
ary and higher institutions unfortunately, it is of advan-
tage to the primary schools. In no non-Christian land,
except possibly Japan, is education so well cared for as in
India. This does not prove that education is wridely dis-
seminated, however; for in 1901 there were only 147,344
institutions all told, with 4,417,422 scholars. That means
that but one person out of every sixty-six is under instruc-
tion, and of that number almost three-fourths are in
schools of the primary grade.' This fact and the further
consideration that only a trifle more than fifteen per cent,
of India's schools are public, the remainder being either
aided or private and unaided, show the need of missionary
vernacular schools.

2. Higher Institutions. — These are in most cases
boarding schools, institutions for helpers, or colleges. The
latter are often affiliated to one of the five Government
Universities, the Universities being merely examining
bodies and having no instructional work. English is used
in practically all of these institutions and is the avenue not
only to government positions, but it also opens up to the
student a field of religious and other literature which is
of the utmost helpfulness. While the University Exam-
inations, toward which most students look, minimize or
wholly ignore the Christian instruction given in mission-
ary colleges and make secular studies and proficiency in
English of supreme importance, the value of their work
from a missionary point of view is as great to-day as when
Alexander Duff, the first great advocate of higher educa-
tion, propounded this thesis, his comparison being be-
tween the work of the evangelistic missionary and that
of the Christian educator : " While you engage in directly

' Statesman's Year-Book, ^9^3j P- i43.

WAYS OF WORKING 197

separating as many atoms from the mass as the stubborn
resistance to ordinary appliances can admit, we shall, with
the blessing of God, devote our time and strength to the
preparing of a mine and the setting of a train, which shall
one day explode and tear up the whole from its lowest
depths.'"

Aitchison's Testimony. ■ — While there is no question
about the value of the schools intended for the preparation
and training of catechists and native pastors, a perennial
controversy has been waged over the use of English in the
earlier time and until the present as to the advisability of
carrying on missionary colleges with the handicaps due
to government regulations and influences. Few utterances
of the past twenty years have so forcefully and authorita-
tively put the case as the following, coming from a former
Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Sir Charles U. Aitch-
ison, LL.D. : " In my judgment the value of educational
missionary institutions, in the present transition state of
Indian opinion, can hardly be overrated. The importance
of mission schools and colleges is even greater now than
when Duff initiated his educational policy and converted
a reluctant General Assembly to his views. His argument
then was, that Hinduism is so wedded to a cosmogony
demonstrably false, that Western education of any kind
became a direct missionary agency, effective at least in
overthrowing the false religions. Experience has amply
justified his views — so much so that, in the work of de-
stroying the heathen beliefs, the government secular
schools, the railways, and the telegraphs, have done as ef-
fective work as the missionaries themselves. Educated
Hindu society is honeycombed with unbelief, and the great
question of the day in India is. What will take the place of
the Hindu gods ? Hence a growing Buddhist optimism ;
hence the revival of Vedantic deism; hence the Brahma
Samaj and other theistic societies ; hence, too, the inquiry

' Smith, Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D., vol. i., pp. io8, 109.

198 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

and searching into the Christian Scriptures, which go on
in India to an extent which those who ignore missions
have no conception of. If the breach that has been made
is filled up, — if, in place of Hinduism we have agnosti-
cism, or even a positive but unchristian belief with which
physical science is not necessarily in antagonism, — the
Christian Church will have to do all the sapping and min-
ing over again; while, instead of the crumbling old for-
tresses of heathenism, we shall have in front of us strong
fortifications, held and defended with weapons of pre-
cision forged in our own arsenals. It is of primary im-
portance now, just at the time that the Government of
India itself is looking anxiously round for some means of
supplementing the deficiencies of its own secular system of
education, to get hold of the youth of India and impreg-
nate them with Christian truth. They are the generation
in whose hands the immediate future of India will lie, and
the importance of bringing them under direct Christian in-
fluences is beyond all calculation. We ■want institutions
like the Cambridge Mission College at Delhi, the American
Mission College at Lahore, and the Established Church
and Free Church Institutions at Calcutta multiplied over
the country.'"

Anti-Christian Education. — Christian missions must
consider also the efforts being put forth by opposers of
Christianity toward the combating of its truths through
education. The late S. H. Kellogg, D. D., says concerning
such education : " The anti-Christian spirit of modern
India is using high Anglo-vernacular education for its own
ends and is establishing large high-class schools and col-
leges on an avowedly anti-Christian basis. An illustration
is the Mohammedan College in Aligarh, Northwest Prov-
inces, founded by that eminent Mohammedan gentleman,
lately deceased. Sir Saiyid Ahmad. Another example is
the large college of the Arya Samaj in Lahore. This has
' Smith, Conversion of India, pp. 187, 188.

WAYS OF WORKING 199

410 students, the largest of any college in Lahore, and pre-
pares men to pass B. A. and other examinations in the
Punjab University. The avowed aim of the institution is
to promote the philosophical and religious principles incul-
cated by the late Pundit Dayanand Sarasvati, founder of
the Samaj. To this end, in addition to the studies required
to pass the various examinations of the University, all stu-
dents must devote three, and Sanskrit students four, pe-
riods a week to the study of the Arya doctrines. Than the
Arya Samaj, Christianity has no more deadly enemy in
India. In its active and unceasing hostility to all mission-
ary effort, it can only be compared with Islam. The ques-
tion then returns to us. Should we allow men who grad-
uate from such colleges to remain under the impression
that to the anti-Christian argument drawn from modern
science and philosophy, evangelical Christians have no
answer to give and that science has vanquished Christian-
ity? Ought we not in the persons of living teachers and
preachers of the Word rather show that, so far from being
destructive of faith in the Gospel, it is quite possible for an
educated man to accept honestly all that is accepted by the
consensus of scholars as settled fact in science, and yet
believe none the less firmly that Jesus Christ rose from the
dead the third day, according to our Gospel, and therewith
all the other great truths as to man's ruin and redemption,
which Christ and His apostles so indubitably taught ?'"

Woman's Education. — The higher education of Hindu
girls and young women has been brought about after long
struggles against native prejudice and even Christian crit-
icism. Naturally the objection was strongest against the
colleges, and not until 1886 was the Isabella Thoburn Col-
lege at Lucknow established by Miss Thoburn of the Meth-
odists of the United States. This first Christian college
for women known in Asia — a wholly secular one had been
established at Calcutta some time before — was followed

' Missionary Review of the World, December, 1899, pp. 883, 886.

200 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

by another in 1890, the Sarah Tucker College of the
Church Missionary Society and the Church of England
Zenana Missionary Society, located at Palamcotta. Every
worker in such colleges shares to a degree in the eulogium
of Dr. Oldham, passed upon the founder of the Lucknow
institution, Miss Thoburn : " The patient, earnest worker
had won her battle against misunderstandings and ques-
tions on the one hand, and on the other against the stolid,
apathetic indifference to woman's training that character-
izes Indian society. Not the least contribution which her
work has made to the progress of that great people, to
whom she gave thirty-one years of her fruitful life, is the
keen desire of the male workers to find educated wives and
the equally earnest resolve of the Indian pastors and lead-
ers to give their daughters the best possible training. To
have borne conspicuous part in transforming any portion
of Indian society, so that those who a generation or two
ago looked upon women as little above the clods of the
earth should now begin to covet college training for them,
is surely to have secured very large returns from a life's
investment. She found an infant Christian Church gath-
ered mainly from the poor and unprivileged; she found
the women of this Church illiterate, burdened, incapable of
much progress ; she took the girls and made from them a
new type of Indian women such as were never dreamed
of."^ Unfortunately the high privileges of women's col-
leges are enjoyed by only one-fiftieth as many students
as are found in Christian colleges for young men.^ Yet
this lack is partly made up by the advantages gained from
study in 166 boarding schools, having 13,514 pupils."

Trained Educators. — The increasing importance of the
educational work in India makes a new demand upon the
missions and the home Church. This is voiced in a reso-

^ Effective Workers in Needy Fields, p. 107.
* Dennis, Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions, p. 265.
' Protestant Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, Statistical Tables,
J900, p. 63.

The Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow

Formal! Chriilian Oillei/c. Lahore

WAYS OF WORKING 20I

lution passed at Madras in 1902: " The Conference would
press upon mission committees the necessity of seeing that
educational missionaries are trained to teach. The educa-
tional missionary must henceforth be regarded much more
as a specialist, like the medical and artisan missionary re-
quiring a preliminary training in his specialty.'" It is the
more important because the grade of mission institutions
and the grants-in-aid depend upon pedagogical ability.

3. Industrial Education. — Although industrial educa-
tion has been carried on by the London Missionary Society
at Nagercoil, beginning in 1823, under the Basel Evangeli-
cal Missionary Society at Calicut and Mangalore from
1844 3-nd 1846, respectively, and by the American Baptists
at Bassein, Burma, since 1861, the special development of
this form of education lies within a few years. Thus
twenty-three of the fifty-four such institutions reported by
Dr. Dennis^ have been established since the beginning of
1890. This is largely due to the demands of an increasing
church membership and the necessities of famine and
plague years. Womanly industries and the ordinary trades
are taught at these schools, usually in connection with the
most important branches of a general education. The
ideal which the missionaries have in mind in those schools
giving trade instruction is as follows : " This Conference
is of opinion that all definite trade instruction should rest
on the basis of a sound general education, the aim of which
from the first should be to educate to their fullest extent
the powers of hand and eye as being calculated to develop
those faculties in the pupils which will be of the greatest
service to them as artisans and imbue them with a taste
for manual pursuits.'" It does not cease with the training
of the school but prepares students for the actual work in
a native shop or mission factory.

^Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. 85, 86.

* Dennis, Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions, pp. io8-iii.

^Report of the Madras Conference, p. 141.

202 INDIA And christian opportunity

IV. Medical Missionary Effort

I. The Field and Need. — In view of the fact that Great
Britain's rulers have provided to some extent medical aid
for India's millions, it may seem superfluous to emphasize
the work of medical missions in this field. Dr. Dennis has
this to say of the need of competent practitioners in that
Empire : " Sickness is often ascribed to demons, or to the
anger of gods and goddesses who are thought to preside
over epidemics, and who must be propitiated in order to
secure their suppression. ' Killed by ignorance ' is still the
verdict in numberless cases of fatality; and when we re-
member that the total number of deaths in India every
year is between five and six millions, we can appreciate
how disastrous are the results of quackery, which has, no
doubt, been the only ministry which the vast majority have
received in their fatal illnesses. To be sure, the old system
with its charms and incantations, its profitless and often
cruel remedies, is gradually passing away; yet the native
hakim is the only recourse in the case of vast multitudes.
It is estimated by Sir William Moore that ' not five per
cent, of the population is reached by the present system of
medical aid.' Even in the great cities, where there are
hospitals and dispensaries, more than half the people die
unattended in sickness either by educated doctor or native
quack. '' If this is the case in the cities,' writes Dr. Wan-
less, ' what must be the condition in the 566,000 villages,
each with a population of less than 500, without even a
native doctor? ' The difficulties attending medical practice
in India arising from the severity of the conventional rules
of society add, no doubt, to the volume of neglect to which
we have referred. In an instructive discussion in the
pages of The Indian Magazine and Review for the latter
part of the year 1895 and the earlier numbers of 1896, con-
cerning ' Medical Aid to Indian Women,' are to be found

?' " .WAYS OF WORKING 5203

repeated references to the lamentable woes of Indian women
in times of illness and suffering, even though, as in many
instances, medical aid might be available. It is a question
whether the so-called hakim or vaidyas, with their foolish
and worthless remedies, are any relief, or whether to be
unattended is not a milder fate than to be ministered to by
those who will gravely prescribe the powdered horn of the
sacred bull as a remedy of special efficacy, or who repeat
verses out of their sacred books for the relief of a person
who has been bitten by a poisonous insect.'"

2. The Force. — According to the April, 1903, issue of
Medical Missions in India, there were at that date 258 mis-
sionaries who were medical graduates or licentiates, of
whom 109 are men and 149 are women — a marked in-
crease over a list published by the same periodical in 1895,
when there were only 140 qualified medical missionaries,
of whom seventy-eight were men and sixty-two were
women. To aid these workers there were in 1900 125 hos-
pitals and 212 dispensaries, containing 2,371 beds. The
total agency connected with these missions was 666 Chris-
tians and ninety-three non-Christians.^

3. Aims. — Various considerations lead to the medical
missionary work in India. " Its object, of course," writes
Dr. Sommerville of Jodhpur, " is primarily to evangelize ;
and the main argument for its use is that it can evangelize
under specially favorable circumstances, under conditions
which lay the heart bare and bring spiritual concerns into
near contact and sharper focus than is the case in the or-
dinary circumstances of daily life. It comes armed with
the sympathy of humanity at its best, and excites, at least
for the time being, a responsive gratitude, which with ac-
companying impressibility may be turned to account for
spiritual ends.'" Yet it also has a broader basis, as a reso-

> Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress, vol. i., pp. 191, 192.
'Protestant Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, Statistical Tables,
Ipoo, pp. 62, 63.

'Medical Missions in India, January, 1902, p. 100.

204 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

lution of the recent Madras Conference indicates : " Rec-
ognizing it to be one of the best agencies for removing
prejudice, for overcoming opposition, for opening closed
doors, we would also claim for it a foremost place in em-
phasizing the practical humanitarian side of Christianity;
and we desire to commend this agency to those missions
which have not yet adopted it as a form of evangelistic
work." Lest the higher ideal should be underestimated,
the second resolution reads : " The medical missionary
should personally organize the spiritual work in the hos-
pitals or dispensaries under his charge and should take an
active part in it. There should be daily teaching in the
wards according to some well-arranged plan ; and in addi-
tion to this, the medical missionary should aim at indi-
vidual dealing with the in-patients. All Christian medical
assistants should be encouraged and trained to do spiritual
work. In large medical missions, the co-operation of
evangelistic missionaries and native evangelists is impor-
tant; and these should endeavor to follow up the work in
the homes of former patients, especially those who have
appeared interested in the teaching.'"

4. Medical Work for Women. — " Medical work for
women and children finds in India to-day perhaps its most
urgent call. There is more need and suffering among
them than among men.'" It is especially needed in the
homes of the wealthy. A woman physician is the physical
savior of those who say of the medical man, " We would
rather die than go to his hospital, or be seen by him." In
maternity cases particularly she is sorely needed, and
everywhere she is the opener of doors and the healer of
souls, as well as of sick bodies. Dr. George Smith regards
this branch of the missionary scheme of so great value,
that he writes of America's share in it during the earlier
decades of the work : " The greatest of all the blessings

^ Report of the Madras Conference^ i^oz, pp. 120, 121.
^ Jones, India's Problem, p. 256.

WAYS OF WORKING 205

which the evangelical churches of America have conferred
upon the people of British India is that of healing their
sick women, and thus powerfully showing the practically
imprisoned inmates of the zenana and harem and the mul-
titudes of widows, so many of whom have never been
wives, that to them the Kingdom of God has come. Till
recently Great Britain could not thus do what the liberal
educational system of the United States had long enabled
women medical missionaries to begin.'" It should be re-
membered that the first woman medical missionary ever
commissioned was Clara Swain, M. D., who was sent to
India by the Woman's Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in 1869. In a volume written by Mrs. S. Arm-
strong-Hopkins, M. D., Within the Purdah, one gets an
inside view of the wealthiest titled families of India and
sees what a Christian physician can accomplish for their
immured inmates. Such pictures are at the opposite pole
of missionary experience from those found in Miss Car-
michael's account of low-caste work, found in Things as
They Are.

5. One Case. — A case reported by Dr. Clark, laboring
in Amritsar, the sacred city of the Sikhs, gives one an idea
of the work : " A hot summer's day ! Earth and sky are
ablaze with heat ; the sun shines down with pitiless glare ;
every living thing seeks shelter from the intense heat —
even the very crows are going about with wide open bill
gasping for breath; and the painfully energetic fly has
not determination enough to buzz about. A weary, trying
day for the strong and healthy; one of misery for the
sick. Here they are, a motley crew, waiting for the ring
of the bell which ushers them one by one into the consult-
ing room of the Amritsar Medical Mission Hospital, where
with the thermometer at loi" we are doing our best to
minister to body and soul. Almost all the ills to which
flesh is heir seem in evidence to-day. One after another

' Smith, Conversion of India, p. 163.

2o6 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

comes in and goes out, yet the crowd outside seems to be as
large as ever. What a world of misery of soul and body
have we here! Look at this old dame, with hair like
driven snow, tall and erect as if she had but lived some
score of years, instead of near to the four-score years of
man's allotted span. ' Son, I will give all I have, bear all
pain, do anything, if thou wilt give me my sight but for
one single moment,' and then she tells us she lost her sight
some years ago. ' Grandmother, your days on earth can
not be many — the shadows are lengthening into night;
why undertake all this pain and weariness for a fleeting
good ? ' say we. ' Son,' she replies, ' since I became blind
a little grandson has been born to me. He is the only one
I have, and I have never seen his face. We are Hindus,
and, as you know, we believe in transmigration. I must
die, and then I shall become a cat, or a dog, or a frog, —
we must be reborn eighty-four million times,^ — and the lad
will become a cow, or a hen, or crow. After this life he
is mine and I am his no more. If I don't see him now, I
shall never see him again, for through all eternity our
lives will never again touch ; and, oh, I do want to see the
laddie's face before I die ! ' The heart-breaking pathos of
that voice and the ' never through all eternity ' ring in my
ears as I write ; and tKe picture of that venerable face with
the upturned, sightless eyes and the longing, pleading look
on it will not easily be forgotten. She heard of the Chris-
tian's hope, ' Let not your heart be troubled — in my
Father's house are many mansions ; I go to prepare a place
for you — I will come again.' And as she heard, the poor
old eyes were brimful — ' Ah, in such words you Chris-
tians have heaven now, but for us there is no hope.' Type,
alas, poor woman, of the millions in India without God and
without hope. In passing, I may add, she made a splendid
recovery from the operation I performed; the result was

^ The number of transmigrations as commonly given is eighty-four
lakhs, 8,400,000. See, c. g., Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hindu-
ism, p. 173.

WAYS OF WORKING 'ZQ'J

excellent, and I ti'ust she saw the little grandson many a
day.'" The value of such work is evident from another
quotation from the same writer: "Medically, as regards
out-patients, we are the largest medical mission in the
world; though as regards in-patients we are far behind a
number of others. During 1891, when Dr. Charles Martin
was in charge for ten months and Dr. Arthur Lankester
for two, no less than 59,762 visits were recorded, and
somewhere about 2,500 operations were performed, and
about 250 in-patients were treated. That work, grand as
it is, would be at the best a splendid failure from the mis-
sionary point of view, were it not that these people have
been brought under Christian influences and had the Gos-
pel preached to them ; for it is our aim to let no one, who
comes to us for healing, go away without hearing of the
Savior.'"

v. Christian Literature

I. Its Importance. — The importance of Christian lit-
erature in Indian missions is suggested in a paper read by
Rev. Dr. Jones at a meeting of the International Mission-
ary Union in 1902, of which this is the substance: "Of
the Tamil native Protestant Christians, 260,000 were re-
quiring more literature than could be furnished, to say
nothing of the hundreds of thousands of non-Christians
who could read and were without literature fit to circu-
late. Fifty thousand of these Tamil Christians could read.
There were in India forty-one Christian presses and pub-
lishing houses, issuing 200,000 pages annually. There
were in circulation seventy-six translations of the Scrip-
tures. The eighteen tract societies had published 40,000,000
copies of their publications. There are 147 magazines and
Other periodicals published in India for native Christians,

' Church Missionary Gleaner, December, 1892, p. ijp,
'Ibid., July, 1892, p. 105.

208 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

with an average circulation of a thousand each. There
are in India 15,000,000 readers among native peoples; not
less than a million youths are sent forth annually from its
institutions with an ability to read some in English, but
mostly in vernaculars, and with eagerness to peruse any-
thing that may be sent forth from Christian presses. The
books accessible from native presses are morally unwhole-
some. ... If we despise this day of great opportunity
in this increasingly important department of work, it will
not only handicap us seriously in other departments ; it -will
also delay considerably the coming of the great day to
which we all look with so much eagerness.'"

2. Approved Principles. — The settled principles under-
lying this work are clearly set forth in the Madras Confer-
ence report, and four of them are subjoined: "(2) To
meet the great and growing need for Christian literature,
men should be set apart to organize the preparation of
suitable books, tracts, and leaflets, and to increase their cir-
culation. In every large language area, one or more per-
sons should be set apart for this purpose ; and in the
smaller language areas a missionary with literary aptitude
should be relieved of other cares as much as possible, that
he may give the larger part of his time to literary work in
that vernacular. This will require men of special gifts
and wide culture, who should not only be able to write ef-
fectively themselves, but also to stimulate and guide others
in this direction. . . . (4) The literature published
should be especially prepared for the people of the land.
Much discussion has taken place regarding the use of
translations, and it is generally agreed that except the Bible
very few English or other books will repay the labor of a
close translation into an Eastern tongue. The translator
must be free to add, alter, adapt, and reject as he proceeds.
The preparation of an original work should be ordinarily
in the vernacular itself : but in some cases, in which the

^ International Missionary Index, igQ2, p. 41.

WAYS OF WORKING 209

book is likely to be useful in more than one language, Eng-
lish may be used by those who are familiar with the re-
ligious and secular thought of the people and then transla-
tions made into different vernaculars. The writers must
be prepared to recognize everything helpful and true in
the religion, literature, customs, and practices of the people;
and in all their preparation they must have ever in view
the persons among whom the publication is to circulate.
(S) The literature must be idiomatic in style, abounding
in illustration and imagery, and thoroughly intelligible to
the people. (6) The pubHcations should be clearly printed,
and where possible suitable pictorial illustrations should be
inserted. It need not be said that the picture should illus-
trate the letter-press, and not the letter-press the picture.'"
3. Colportage. — Having secured a sufficient supply of
suitable literature, it must be widely circulated to become
an effective missionary agency. The Madras Conference
made the following recommendations in this connection :
"(i) A stock of books and tracts should be kept in every
station and where possible a book-shop opened. (2) The
missionary should see that each evangelist takes with him
a supply of suitable literature for sale or free distribution.
(3) After every preaching service, books should be of-
fered for sale. (4) A person should be appointed to sell
in every local market, for then the people have money and
are more likely to buy. In some places it will be possible
to visit the railway station for a similar purpose. (5)
While traveling by train, many a leaflet or tract will be
gratefully accepted and read by travelers. Much literature
can also be disposed of to workmen during the hour al-
lowed for food. (6) School teachers, zenana visitors,
Bible women, and workers in hospitals should be encour-
aged to sell publications. (7) Colporters should be ap-
pointed where a proper number of books can be sold."^

' Report of the Madras Conference, 1^02, pp. 16S, 169.
2 Ibid., pp. 177. 178.

2IO INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY,

yi. Work for the Native Church

1. Composition. — It should be remembered that the
vast majority of the native church members are of low-
castes. This does not mean that the better classes are un-
represented. The work of S. Modak of Ahmednagar
proves the remarkable strength of the Church in this par-
ticular.' Yet " it is from the Karens, the Telugus, the San-
tals, the Chamars, the Kols, the Klhasis, the Shanars, the
Chuhras, and other tribes of like standing, that the present
Indian Church has received the great body of its member-
ship ; and the Salvation Army seems to get a large part of
its soldiers from the Dheds of Gujarat, the Mahars of
Poona, and the Pariahs of Cape Comorin. No remarkable
work has ever yet been reported among the Brahmans, the
Rajputs, the Kshattriyas, or even the Mohammedans.'" In
this respect the Indian Church resembles at the present
stage the one at Corinth' and all infant churches in semi-
civilized lands, except Japan.

2. Character. — An Indian clergyman has recently
called attention fo the strong and weak characteristics of
his fellow church members. In his opinion they have
gained through their acceptance of Christianity the free-
dom which Christ always brings, especially to a land that
has been so bound to the past as India; the strong indi-
viduality which is apt to come to the man who faces popu-
lar ridicule, an individuality marked by superior moral
courage; self-reliance, due to the necessity for caring for
himself after being thrust out by his caste and family; tJie
advantage which is just beginning to come from intermar-
riage among those of differing castes; the freedom to en-
ter new and better employments and even to emigrate to

^ See Modak, Directory of Protestant Indian Christians, vol. i.
' Stewart, Life and Work in India, p. 245.
•I, .CoPs 1:26-29.

WAYS OF WORKING 211

Western lands, consequent upon being left without ancestral
property or attachment to a particular village; the incli-
nation to enter more fully into the inner life of the Occi-
dent, as the native comes into intimate contact with for-
eigners; and the superior training and environment that
are the lot^of most Christians. Mr. Joshi has to deplore a
number of undesirable characteristics which he thinks have
come with' the new faith; the contact between different
castes and races, brought about by Christianity, is thus far
mainly a riiechanical one ; hereditary taints are difficult to
eradicate^l'especially in South India ; the charge of selfish-
ness is partly justified and is due to the motto of many
Christians, ' Everybody for himself and God for all; mis-
sionary tutelage has been a source of weakness as well as
a blessing, so that manliness, straightforwardness, and
originality have been lost; jealousy is very apt to pursue
those Christians whose character or abilities have raised
them above their fellows ; the general good of the Christian
community is subordinated to personal differences; and
mutual trust, so essential to a strong Christian solidarity, is
lacking in very many.' The Madras Conference summed
up the great defects of Indian church life in these words :
" It is our deep conviction that the greatest need in our
missions to-day is Christian Life: not more elaborate
methods, or better organization or new appliances; but
more life, the new life from God, inbreathed by the Holy
Spirit, ' working in us that which is well-pleasing in his
sight.' . . . True Christian life is absolutely essen-
tial to true Christian living. It is evident that they only
who really possess the life of Christ will do from the heart
the works and will of Christ ; that they only who have the
Holy Spirit dwelling within them can bring forth the fruit
of the Spirit.'"

' Rer. D. L. Joshi in Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1903,
pp. 269-274.

'Report of the Madras Conference, 1903, p. ai.

212 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

3. Preaching. — To build up the essential characteristic
of a strong Church, the Christ-like, spirit-filled life, spe-
cial services akin to Occidental revival meetings are rec-
ommended by the recent Conference; but the usual and
most satisfactory means of such upbuilding lies in the reg-
ular ministrations of the local church. Dr. Duff long ago
suggested the sort of preaching and teaching to foster this
life. " In attempting to convey spiritual ideas to the mind
of such a people," he writes, " the abstract, the formal, the
didactic, or intellective style of address, must be wholly
abandoned. The model, both as to substance and manner,
must be taken from the Bible itself. Acting the part of a
skilful physician, the missionary must first try to mark the
varying phases which the radical disease of sin assumes in
the varying character of those before him. Not having the
supernatural gift of discerning spirits, he must bring his
experience of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness
of his own heart, as reflected in the mirror of revelation, to
bear upon the study of what may be termed the pathology
of the souls of others. Having succeeded in detecting the
peculiar phases of the malady, he will find in the Bible an
inexhaustible materia medica, whence to supply the appro-
priate remedy. In order most effectually to apply it, he
must drink in the very spirit of the symbolic and parabolic
mode of instruction, so often employed by the prophets and
our blessed Savior. And he who shall present the faithful
imitations of it, he who shall embody divine truth in the
most striking emblems or pictorial images, will assuredly
be the most successful in reaching the understanding and
lastingly impressing the hearts of the great masses of the
people."'

An Illustration. — The Indianizing of Scripture truth,
to which Dr. Duff alludes, is illustrated in the following
paragraph from the life of Ko Thah-byu, Dr. Judson's
famous convert, in which the Karen apostle is commenting

^ Duff, Missions the Chief End of the Christian Church, pp. iii, 112.

WAYS OF WORKING 2I3

on the parable of the rich man. " A worldly man is never
satisfied with what he possesses. ' Let me have more
houses, more lands, more buffaloes, more slaves, more
clothes, more wives, more children and grandchildren,
more gold and silver, more paddy and rice, more boats and
vessels ; let me be a rich man.' He thinks of nothing so
much as of amassing worldly goods. Of God and religion
he is quite unmindful ; but watch that man. On a sudden
his breath departs, and he finds himself deprived of all he
possessed and valued so much. He looks around and sees
none of his former possessions. Astonished he exclaims:
' Where are my slaves ? Where are my buffaloes ? I can
not find one of them. Where are my houses and my
chests of money? What has become of all my rice and
paddy that I laid up in store ? Where are all the fine clothes
that cost me so much ? I can find none of them. Who
has taken them? And where are my wives and my chil-
dren ? Ah ! they are all missing. I can find none of them.
I am lonely and poor indeed. I have nothing. But what is
this ? ' The preacher here entered upon a description of the
sufferings of the soul that is lost, after which he repre-
sented the rich man as taking up this lamentation : ' Oh,
what a fool I have been ! I neglected God, the only Savior,
and sought only worldly goods while on earth, and now I
am undone ! ' While the old man was preaching in this
manner every eye was fixed on him, and every ear was at-
tentive. Soon after he pursued the following strain : All
in this world is misery. Sickness and pain, fear and
anxiety, wars and slaughter, old age and death, abound on
every hand. But hearken. God speaks from on high :
' Children, why take you delight and seek happiness in that
low village of mortahty, that thicket of briers and thorns ?
Look up to Me; I will deliver you and give you rest, where
you shall be forever blessed and happy.' '"

4. Sunday-schools. — Next to preaching, and superior

^ Mason, Life of Ko Thah-byu, the Karen Apostle, pp. 36, 37.

214 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

to it in some respects, — since an Indian Sunday-school
contains the large majority of the church, adults as well as
children, — is the work of teaching the community the
truths of Christianity in the Sabbath-school. The first one
of these in India and perhaps in all Asia was established
at Serampore in 1803. Not until the formation of the In-
dia Sunday-school Union in 1876, however, was the organ-
ized work of the present day brought into being. Its pro-
gram indicates the features which are being emphasized
in this work at the present time. The objects of the Union
are: (i) To emphasize the spiritual character of Sun-
day-school teaching; (2) to consolidate and extend Sun-
day-school work; (3) to educate teachers in the best prin-
ciples and method of Bible study and teaching; (4) to
produce and foster the growth of English and vernacular
literature suitable for teachers and scholars; (5) to en-
courage special services among young people; (6) and to
unite for mutual help all Sunday-schools conducted by
Protestant missions in Southern Asia. Such ideals are in-
fluencing some 300,000 members in Sunday-schools.

5. Interdenominational Societies. — Interdenomination-
al organizations aid the churches more than in Western
lands. Thus the Christian Endeavor organization with an
experienced secretary at its head is a most valuable ad-
junct in various denominations, in that it trains the
younger members of the Church to independent and united
activities. The denominational societies of the same sort,
as the Epworth Leagfue, serve a similar purpose, except
that they underscore the differences between the churches
instead of bringing their younger members together. The
Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations
are likewise the servants of the churches, though their spe-
cial field includes to a considerable extent the better edu-
cated youth of the Empire. No work, perhaps, is more
strategic and widely useful to the influential classes of the
future Church in India.

WAYS OF WORKING 21^

6. Native Leaders. — The churches that are built up
through these and other agencies will be strong and ag-
gressive largely in proportion as they are under the guid-
ance of energetic, resourceful, and consecrated leaders.
To the task of raising up such men and women the mis-
sions are giving much attention. The qualities desired in
such church leaders, as well as the line of training to be
adopted, are succinctly set forth in Dr. Scott's paper at the
Madras Conference. He would have these agents taught
in such a way as to secure : ( i ) Moral and spiritual de-
velopment; (2) the fundamentals of theology resting on
the Bible; (3) method in thought and study, thus bringing
the student's mind into working order; (4) practical
workers as evangelists and pastors; (5) as much related
collateral information as can conveniently be imparted;
(6) manliness, physical and mental, good manners and
courtesy. The aim should be to raise up workers adapted
to India, and not for England or America. This means
much practical work in connection with the scholastic
course, — such work as a previous paragraph showed Mr.
Eddy doing. As the following chapter will state, some
of the chief problems in connection with the native Church
have to do with its development in independence and as
a self-propagating force ; hence a careful study of these
problems and a determination to cope with their diffi-
culties will be a prominent part of the course of training.
It may be added that not only are men and women trained
who give their whole time to the church work, but it is a
common thing for the wives of men thus preparing to
receive special training also.

7. Church Evolution — the Field. — A man so trained
may go into a village like this one in North India : " Re-
member that the village streets are narrow and filthy,
often only three or four feet wide ; that the houses are
all built of mud and consist each of only a room or two,
facing a small court which is surrounded by a mud wall;

2l6 INDIA AND CI-IRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

that the furniture of the poor people comprises simply-
one or two native bedsteads, a spinning wheel, some cook-
ing utensils, and a few other articles; that the dusky-
children of the place go about without much if any cloth-
ing on, and that generally the men, and sometimes the
women, appear in such soiled and scanty attire that they
would be arrested as public nuisances in any American
town. Remember, too, that the men are generally absent
in daylight at their field work; that all, old and young,
are at the outset perfectly illiterate, and that at first there
is no public meeting-place except an open common, where
a person can collect the people to give them an address.

The Start. — " Under such circumstances, the Christian
worker -who has taken up his abode among them, or per-
haps hired a house in some more desirable quarter, be-
gins his labors. One by one the people are taught a little
of God's Word and introduced into the outskirts of the
great temple of divine truth. Wherever he can get an
opportunity, two or three persons are for a few minutes
formed by him into a class to learn passages of Scripture
and questions in the catechism — women and children by
day and men at night — ■ and at set periods, especially on
the Sabbath, as many as possible are assembled on the
common, or in a private court, to engage in more formal
worship. His work is emphatically ' precept upon precept,
precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line; here
a little and there a little.'

A Church. — " In the course of time, perhaps, a small
mud building is erected on the common, or a purchased
lot, — the people themselves putting up the walls and the
Mission bearing the expense of the woodwork, — and here
the worker and the teacher can carry on their labors more
conveniently. Possibly, too, after a while, a few benches,
a chair, and a desk are put into this building; and even a
second room may be added, which can be occupied as a
rest house by the missionaries and others -when they visit

WAYS OF WORKING 217

that part of the country on a tour of duty. For the Chris-
tian laborer himself also r, permanent home is sometimes
provided. Thus the work advances step by step.'" It may
be a long time before such a village church has a separate
existence and longer still before a native pastor is placed
over it. Even then years may elapse before it exercises
the initiative and aggressiveness which are so much
needed in India.

'•Stewart, Life and Work in India, pp. 263, 264.

VII

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS

The work in which India's missionaries are engaged
gives rise to greater problems than that in any other
great mission field. Moreover, with the exception of
lands ruled by Mohammedans, there is no other important
country in which the opponents of Christianity are so
awake to the necessity of meeting the new faith with
counter-movements and active opposition.

I. Modern Objections to Indian Missions

1. Why Indian 'Missions? — The Initial question
which the missionaries, because of opponents of missions
at home, are -forced to consider, is that of the Justification
for missions in an Empire so providentially ruled and de-
veloped by a Christian power; and if the enterprise is
justified, as all save thoughtless critics of missions in
general would grant, the question of the character of the
work attempted remains to be answered.

2. A Modern Objection. — Rev. Dr. Jones begins a
chapter on India's missionary problems with a growingly
common objection to missions and the Christian answer.
" ' Why do you not,' say the advocates of a rigid doctrine
of evolution, ' leave those non-Christian peoples to work
out their own salvation through a natural evolution of
their own faiths? Let those old crude religions pass into
something higher through the natural process of evolu-
tion, rather than resort to the cataclysmic method of

2l8

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 219

overthrowing the old and introducing a faith that is en-
tirely foreign. Why not let the process of growth work
out its own results, even though it takes a long time for
it?'"

Reply. — Instead of replying from the standpoint of
India's religious history, which would show tendencies
to degradation instead of improvement during the past
three thousand years, the following answer is made:
" This objection to our work is modern and thorough-
going. Of course it is equally pronounced against super-
naturalism in all its forms and ramifications. It will be
futile to reply to this by appealing to the command of our
Lord to go and disciple all nations. It is enough to re-
mind this objector that the doctrine of evolution admits
that the highest Christian altruism is a part of the evolu-
tion process. And if that is so, then the highest Christian
altruism must find its noblest exercise in the work
of bringing, by Christians to non-Christians, those
ideas and that life which they deem the best, and
of which those outside of Christ stand in urgent
need. The highest evolution of our race has been, and
ever must be, through that Christian altruism which will
not rest until the noblest truth and the fullest life are
brought to all the benighted souls of our race. Is not this
the last message of evolution to us at this present? And
is it not identical with the last commission of our Lord to
His followers — to go and disciple the nations? And
w'hile it is the function of Christianity to maintain the
evolution principle of the survival of the fittest, it does
this by indirection — by seizing upon the most unfit and
unworthy and making them fit to stand before God and
worthy to enjoy the life eternal in all its glory.'"

3. Methods. — But what are the methods which will
best secure the result demanded by evolution and by our
high commission? It is a divisive question among the
1 Jones, India's Problem, pp. 264, 263.

220 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

missionary ranks in India; but whatever may be ideall)''
desirable, " the trend of the times is doubtless in favor
of the broader, humanitarian, philanthropic, civilizing
purpose of missions, as against the deeper and more ex-
clusive, spiritual, and Christianizing end.'" Happily
there is in the missionary body a strong contingent who
are so convinced of the paramount necessity of something
more radical to effect India's regeneration, that they em-
phasize constantly the spiritual aims of the missionary en-
terprise. Their strength and the efforts made through
conferences for deepening the spiritual life are resulting
in the greater spiritualizing of secular aims, which per-
haps is the best answer to the problem of methods.

II. Caste Problems \

1. Madras Resolution. — A whole group of questions
clusters about caste, both as it affects the Christian's rela-
tions to the non-Christian community, and as it occasions
difficulty among fellow-Christians. Yet the only resolu-
tion concerning it at the late Conference at Madras was
as follows : " The Conference would very earnestly em-
phasize the deliverance of the South India Missionary
Conference of 1900, namely, that caste, wherever it ex-
ists in the Church, be treated as a great evil to be dis-
couraged and repressed. It is further of opinion that in
no case should any person, who breaks the law of Christ by
observing caste, hold any office in connection with the
Church; and it earnestly appeals to all Indian Christians
to use all lawful means to eradicate so unchristian a
system.""

2. Caste Problems. — Difficulties arising from the
system occasion the Church most concern in Southern
India. Yet it was here in the early centuries that the

' Jones, India's Proilem, p. 283.

'Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. 26, 27.

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 221

Syrian Church took strong grounds against it, so that to-
day caste names, the most cherished remnant of the sys-
tem, have entirely disappeared in that communion. Un-
fortunately neither Rome nor the early Protestant mis-
sionaries followed their noble example, and recent workers
are suffering from their laxness. From the evangelistic
point of view the evils of caste are chiefly two : " First,
it threatens every person inclined to become a Christian
with losses and sufferings of the most grievous character;
and, secondly, it segregates the new convert and puts
him in a position where he can have little or no influence
over his former friends. Even the first of these evils
is calculated to hinder our work very much; because it
not only deters many from the initial step of making
honest inquiry into the truth of the Christian religion,
but also prevents people from confessing Christ, unless
they have an extraordinary amount of moral and physical
courage. But the second evil is still greater, because it
cuts off so effectually what might be called the natural
growth of the good work of winning souls. Not only is
the ordeal of social, civil, and religious ostracism, with
which the profession of Christ is connected, a severe trial
to the individual convert himself, but — what is more to
be regretted — it prevents him from securing the salvation
of his kindred.'" It by no means always follows that
converts are thrust out by their families, yet it is a very
common occurrence.

3. How Met? — These two and other problems con-
nected with caste, notably the practical refusal of the ma-
jority of church members to intermarry with Christians
outside the caste, can be legislated against, as recom-
mended by the Madras Conference; but perhaps the
constant reiteration by missionaries of the prayer of
Jesus that all His people might be one, with comments
upon it, and the multiplication of object-lessons of extra-
* Stewart, Life and Work in India, p. 224.

222 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

caste marriage and of true Christian fellowship among
different castes will best accomplish the desired result.
Christian schools are also powerful agencies in weaken-
ing the system, as is the work of medical missions.

III. Problems Connected With New Converts

1. Polygamy. — One difficulty in the way of receiving
a professed convert, though affecting only a small per-
centage of candidates, is a most perplexing one ; it is that
of applicants who have more than one wife. As Hindu
or Mohammedan they have entered in good faith into
marriage contracts with these wives, and if a man puts
away all but one, what provision shall be made for the re-
jected? and on what principle shall he decide as to the
one to be retained ? While it is a question easily answered
in missionary society councils at home, it is a more serious
problem at the front. Some good missionaries hold that
where the husband is living the Christian life in all sin-
cerity, it is better to receive into the Church such a can-
didate, — though not eligible to any church office, — than
to require him to give up all but one wife and thus brand
with illegitimacy his children by them, as well as occasion
the wives so put away endless reproach and embarrass-
ments.

2. Probation. — Nor is it a simple question to decide
how long a probation candidates for baptism, who do not
suffer from such entanglements as polygamy, should
undergo before being received. If there is reason in
Christian lands for requiring a period of probation be-
fore receiving persons to the church, how much greater
reason is there in case of those who are almost inconceiv-
ably ignorant of Christian truth, and who are steeped in
heathen ideas and surrounded by a hopeless environment ?
Yet it often happens that a man hears the Gospel at a
festival far from home, or else when temporarily residing

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 223

in a distant village. If he defers baptism until the proba-
tionary period has passed, he may not be able to reach the
missionary again ; or the opposition of his family may pre-
vent its being administered. In any case he loses the
stimulus which a pronounced and irrevocable stand for
Christ gives; since the administration of this sacred rite
is the Rubicon which, when crossed, commits him to the
new religion and cuts off hope of easy return. Some mis-
sionaries do not hesitate to baptize all those who seem
truly desirous of serving God and are conscious of their
sinfulness and of saving grace, in the hope that divine
power will keep them true to their faith and inwardly in-
struct them in the things of God. Others regard such a po-
sition as destructive of church order and likely to result in
a corrupt Christian community.

3. Private Baptism. — In the case of some converts,
if baptism is to be administered at all, it seems almost
necessary to hold the service in secret. Such cases are
usually those of women, especially in the better homes
whose inmates can not well attend church, and others in
the higher walks of life. In the case of women, to be bap-
tized may and probably will lead to their being cast out,
thus at once depriving them of the possibility of influen-
cing other members of the household and making it neces-
sary for the church to make some provision for such cast-
aways. But if it should be granted that secret baptism
is permissible, who is to perform the rite? Into such
homes a male missionary could not well go, and what
other means of meeting the requirements of the case is
there except to authorize lady missionaries to perform the
ceremony? Other difficulties confront the men who ask
for secret baptism, the greatest being those which beset
young students who desire to enter the Christian life
through this rite. In cases not a few such persons have
been lost to sight after their baptism became known, or
else have been poisoned, and sometimes — what is worse

224 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

than death — they are drugged and led into lives of
shameless sensuality, or increasing imbecility. The ques-
tion of public baptism seems most vital when facing such
cases, and many missionaries perform the rite in secret.

Madras Resolution. ■ — ■ The prevailing opinion with re-
gard to women converts, however, is that voiced by the
Madras Conference : " We all agree that in no case
should wives and mothers be urged to break family ties
in order to publicly confess Christ by baptism, but rather
that they be encouraged, even in the face of bitter perse-
cution, to witness for Christ in their own homes, in order
that their husbands and children may be by their con-
sistent lives won for Christ. At the same time there will
often be those who, after earnest thought and prayer,
will themselves be led to the conviction that the call has
come to them from God to confess their faith by baptism.
Dare we, who have ourselves experienced the blessing that
has come into our lives from obedience to Christ's com-
mands, keep such back? . . . We dare not take such
a responsibility, but would encourage them rather to be
true to the voice of conscience, however great the cost.
. . . We do not advise secret baptisms in zenanas.
Widows and unmarried girls of legal age, as well as mar-
ried women who have been cast out on account of their
faith can of course act for themselves ; but, if baptized
contrary to the wishes of their parents or guardians, they
will usually need protection and support.'"

IV. Embarrassments Due to Mass Movements

I. In Tinnevelly. — One of the greatest problems in
some missions arises from success. While the phrase
" mass movements '' may be rather grandiloquent, it
describes conditions " where certain castes and classes
have, in large bodies, sought the blessings of our faith.
^Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. 99, 100,

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PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 225

in Tinnevelly, for intance, the Shanar caste was early
influenced by Christian workers; and, as they are a very
clannish community, many thousands of them have em-
braced the Christian faith and have been wonderfully
transformed and elevated through contact with it. One
of the most marvelous manifestations of the power of the
Gospel is presented to-day in that district by this people,
who, under missionary influence and Christian training,
have risen from great depths of ignorance and social
degradation until they stand among the highest of that
land in intelligence and in the spirit of progress. Most of
the Christians of Tinnevelly belong to this once despised
class and are, in many respects, full of vigor and enter-
prise.

2. Telugu Field. — " In the famous Telugu Baptist
Mission we find a similar movement. That American
Mission labored for twenty-five years without much en-
couragement. After those years the outcastes of the com-
munity began to appreciate the advantages of our faith
and to apply for admission into its congregations. It
gathered them in by thousands, until it has become by far
the largest mission in this country." Dr. Jones must refer
here to India as a whole, rather than to the Madras
Presidency.

3. North India. — " During the last few years a similar
movement has overtaken the American Methodists and
other missions in North India. Many thousands of the
depressed classes within its area have sought a refuge
from their ills and a Savior for their souls in the Chris-
tian fold. . . . Bishop Thoburn says that more than
100,000 of this class are now waiting to be received into
their community, but that their mission has not the men
or means to instruct them.'"

4. Resulting Problems. — Many problems arise in con-
nection with these mass movements, some of which were

'Jones, India's Problem, pp. 308, 309. ,

226 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

discussed by the Bombay Conference of 1893. Rev. Mr.
Uhl's paper named the following as most common and
serious: (i) The unworthy motives often lying behind
wholesale conversions, so-called. " These reasons are :
Famine and scarcity, lack of tanks and wells or deficient
water-supply, troubles arising from water-supply, need of
house sites, desire for fields, cases in the civil or criminal
courts, sickness, misfortunes, wish for schools, marriage al-
liances to be made, vetty lands to be protected, property
to be preserved, hope of employment, better paying labor,
a desire to have children supported in the mission board-
ing schools, quarrels with the lower classes or disputes
with the upper classes, and a large number of cases with
some undefined expectation of better physical things.''
When there is such a hunger for the loaves and fishes,
how is the missionary to be a discerner of spirits? (2)
A mistaken view of what Christianity really is may thus
be gained which will follow such converts to their grave.
(3) The great danger that caste and pagan usages will be
perpetuated; since this difficulty, serious as it is when
converts come in one by one, will be increased with mul-
titudes applying for admission to the church. (4) Wo-
men, so stragetic an element in Indian society, are very
likely to be overlooked, when so large a number of men
are offering themselves ; or if admitted, their instruction
is liable to be neglected in favor of the men. (5) The in-
evitable result of such movements is to treat converts in
the bulk, instead of dealing with them one by one, which
is so essential to a true conception of Christianity in India.
(6) Ingratitude is likely to result. The advantages sought
are regarded as the proper reward of a change of religion,
and hence they are not received with becoming gratitude ;
or, if refused, the new convert becomes " a great-sized
monster of ingratitudes," a constant source of sorrow to
the missionary. (7) Another evil results from the sudden
transition from a position of degradation to one in which

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 227

Christianity exalts the individual. "With new or im-
agined champions, impudence to the villagers and to their
superiors often possesses them; and they not only omit
courtesy but push themselves forward to offensiveness
and insult, with a whole train of results following in quar-
rels with villagers, revenges, destruction of property, and
actions in criminal courts.'" To avoid such dangers as
these — which have been unduly emphasized by Mr. Uhl —
the serious responsibility confronts the Church at home of
providing a sufficient force to properly instruct, sift, and
cultivate the multitudes who apply for Church member-
ship. Where this is done testimony like Mr. Campbell's
shows the value of mass movements : " I have found to
my surprise that better moral and spiritual results are se-
cured when people come over in the mass than when they
come over as individuals. There is much more stability
in a Christian community which has arisen as a result of
a mass movement than in one which has been formed by
the ingathering of isolated individuals.'"

V. Economic Problems

I. Need of Employment. — Admitting only those ap-
plicants -who are truly worthy does not end the mission-
ary's difficulties. Baptism throws many out of employ-
ment and home as well. " Hindus and Mohammedans
prefer patronizing merchants, shop-keepers, and manufac-
turers of their own faith ; and by dealing with others in
some kinds of business, they would actually violate the
laws of their respective sects. This leads to practical
boycotting and compels the Christian community to de-
pend mostly upon itself for patronage in its various de-
partments of trade, as well as service. Only as coolies,

^ Report of the Third Decennial Missionary Conference, held at Bom-
hay, jSp^-pj, pp. 557-560-

^Missionary Review of the World, October, igoi, p. 776.

228 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

farm-hands, weavers, and laborers of the lowest grades,
or as dealers in such detested articles as hides, are its
members allowed to work, or to do business with any de-
gree of freedom. As far as the Christian population gen-
erally is concerned, more respectable avenues of profit
are closed to their ambition.'"

2. Peasant Settlements. — Industrial education will un-
doubtedly aid in the removal of these difficulties, as does
the rapid increase of the Christian community, the growth
of manufactures, and the introduction of new industries.
Meanwhile, peasant settlements are strongly urged by the
Madras Conference as an aid in overcoming the dis-
abilities above named. The settlements have proven their
ability to better the situation, especially those of the Irish
Presbyterians in Gujerat and Kathiawar; those conducted
by the Church Missionary Society at Clarkabad and at
Montgomerywala ; and the United Free Church settle-
ments in Chingleput District, Madras. Aside from the
industrial value of these peasant settlements, they are en-
dorsed from the Christian standpoint. " It is easily pos-
sible to deal with the people in the mass. Christian fami-
lies are kept together in one common center under pre-
dominant Christian influences. They come under the di-
rect care of the pastor, are subject to Christian discipline,
come regularly to worship, enjoy Christian communion
and mutual intercourse, and instruction under such cir-
cumstances can be made more thorough.'" Another ar-
gument in their favor is the fact that if Protestants .make
no such provision for their needy members, they will go
over to the Catholics, who have already begun to use this
means of proselyting.

Disadvantages. — But if a settlement is decided upon,
here is another temptation to secularize the missionary en-
terprise. Moreover, it fosters the dependent spirit, which

^ Stewart, Life and Work in India, p. 326.
'Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, p. 146.

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 229

is a marked defect of the native character; it occasions
friction or enmity between missionaries and their con-
verts, since even Christians are true to the common
maxim, " Never pay unless you are compelled," and hence
they must be almost forcibly dealt with by those in charge ;
it has in many cases attracted worthless characters by the
hope of worldly advantage; and it hinders the spread of
the Gospel by segregating the leaven from the masses so
greatly needing it. The " compound system " is similar
to the settlement scheme and open to nearly the same ob-
jections.

3. Credit Associations. — To aid struggling Christians
toward independence the Madras Conference also urged
the establishment of mission banks of a cooperative char-
acter, holding that they would add greatly to the moral
and social advancement of their people and at the same
time furnish object-lessons useful to the Government in
furthering its Cooperative Credit Association scheme.
If established by a given mission, such a bank would need
to pass through the experimental stage, since the Raiff-
eisen and Schultze-Delitsch Banks of Europe, which
furnish the models, are conducted under widely different
conditions. Moreover, for some time to come they would
serve the purpose of a training school in finance to the
native leaders, in whose hands they must largely be, rather
than furnish a present solution of pressing financial need.

VI. The Question of a Self-supporting Church

I. Difficulties. — Closely akin to the questions just
named are similar ones affecting the local church. When
the individual members can scarcely provide for their
own family needs, how can they be expected to sustain the
activities of their church? To urge the example of the
Karens, who, under the leadership of Abbott and others
of the American Baptist Missionary Union, set so mag-

230 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

nificent an example of financial independence and aggres-
sive church life, is to suggest to objectors the absence of
caste and other difficulties which so complicate matters
in India proper. Moreover, the fertility of Burma, the
favoring climate, and the leadership of unusual men are
further answers in the view of some. The fact that more
than one-eighth of the organized congregations of India,
including Burma, were reported as self-supporting at
the close of 1900^^ shows the possibility of self-support,
notwithstanding the difficulties.

2. Methods. — The methods which are most commended
are as follows : " In order to secure the hearty and liberal
gifts of the people, not only must the Christian duty,
privilege, and blessing of giving be laid continually be-
fore them, but such methods of giving as accord with the
genius of the people should be resorted to. In this con-
nection, offerings on special festive occasions, offerings
for special mercies received or dangers averted, — for ex-
ample, in times of sickness, etc., — first fruits, collections
of grain and the like, should be encouraged, in addition to
periodical contributions, collections, etc. Harvest fes-
tivals, coinciding as they do with the customs of the
country, have also proved themselves an important factor
in inciting the people to spontaneous and cheerful giving,
and are heartily recommended by the Conference.'"

Harvest Festival. — The harvest festival, so especially
emphasized, deserves fuller mention, since it accomplishes
far more than an increase in financial gifts. Rev. E. A.
Douglas, who calls the gathering the modern Feast of
Tabernacles, thus describes one in his field : " A peep into
that great temporary structure made of boughs of trees,
hung with flags made by the school children, and deco|
rated with fruits and grains gathered in by the sons of

^ Protestant Missions in India, Surma, and Ceylon, Statisticci TdUiSf
igoo, p. 63.

'Report f'f the Madroi ConiertncCg^ i^os, pp. 39, 30, f

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 23 1

the soil who have themselves been brought into Christ's
garner-church, brought vividly before one's mind the great
truth of the oneness of the Church and the communion of
saints. The European missionaries and the ten North
Tinnevelly pastors, together with the singing boys and
girls, sitting on either side, filled the platform. Ranging
down the side of the tent were the inspecting school-
masters, lay members of council, leading members of con-
gregations, and the members of the Itinerating Band
headed by the ' Leader of Song.' In the body of the tent
sat the members of congregations and their catechists and
schoolmasters, — on one side the men, on the other the
women. They had come up from all parts of North Tin-
nevelly, for the most part on foot, some in bandies — com-
ing not empty but with holy offerings. . . . After the
sermon was over the offerings were brought. First the
money was gathered in by the pastors — some Rupees 160.
Then the women's needle work was brought up on trays, —
such a collection ! — mufflers, caps, tablecloths, frocks,
socks, a baby's hood, bead penholders, artificial flowers,
a bundle of things from the Sachiapuram Girls' Boarding
School, a cap made by the Brahman wife of the sub-
registrar of Sivakasi, and many other things. These were
afterwards sold by auction and realized about Rupees 25.
Then amidst the vigorous singing of the Tamil rendering
of ' Bringing in the Sheaves,' * Where are the Reapers,'
and such like hymns, the grain offerings were brought up
by the people themselves and the sacks piled in front of
the platform. Many fowls, too, were brought, which after
a good deal of cackling and clucking, were set to lie
helplessly, with their legs tied, on the platform. . . .
Limes, tobacco leaves, a concertina, a good brass lamp, a
stone garden-seat, were amongst the offerings brought;
all these were arranged on the platform and together
with the sacks of grain in front gave it the appearance of
a well-stocked bazaar. The collection of things was

232 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

amusing, but the people all rejoiced for a better reason —
they all gave willingly; and although last year had been
a time of great scarcity, owing to the failure of the mon-
soon, yet the number of offerings was not decreased, and
the amount realized — some Rupees 250 — was greater
than last year.'" The deepest source of joy at this har-
vest festival was the baptism of many converts by their
several pastors, which made the occasion a double harvest
home.

A Native Suggestion. — A prominent native Christian
makes this suggestion as a possible solution of the prob-
lem of self-support in village churches. " Take the case of
an ordinary village church with perhaps fifty members,
men and women. In such a village there would probably
be a teacher and a preacher. The church would be ex-
pected under the present condition of things to pay a part
of the salary of an itinerant pastor, who has charge of
two or more churches. The teacher and the preacher
would be paid by the mission. Suppose a field covering
five acres of land, watered by the supply from a well, was
purchased in the same way as a school-house or a
preacher's quarters are built. Suppose each member of
the church was to take into the field a certain number of
baskets of manure from his yard and to give a fixed num-
ber of days' labor to the cultivation of the field. Those
who have bullocks and plows would plow part of the
field or draw water from the well. If the village was at
some distance from a large town, sugar-cane might be
grown and jaughery sold in the town. If the village was
near a large town, vegetables and fruits of different kinds
could be grown and sold. A field of the size mentioned
above, if properly cultivated, has been found on experiment
to yield an income of from Rupees 600 to Rupees 700 a
year. This sum can pay the salaries of all the agents in
the place. The work in the field should be arranged for

^Church Missionary Gleaner, October, 1903, p. 150.

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 233

and regulated by a small committee of the church. All
the work, or as much as is possible, should be voluntary
and unpaid. It would interest the Christians in the place
in aggressive work, and in a short time enable them to do
for other villages what the mission has done for them.
This experiment is being tried in some places in the
country. In two places fields have been hired, because
the churches had no money to buy them. In another place
a church is considering the idea of planting a mango
grove. Such a project may not be paying for some years,
but is likely afterwards to yield handsomely without much
labor."'

VII. Securing Self-government

1. Desirability and Possibility. — A strenuous effort
toward self-support is not likely to be made unless a
church is assured of self-government, to the extent, at
least, that the usages of the denomination permit. It is
generally conceded in India that a reasonable share in the
government of the church should be granted its members,
in order to train them in the art of self-government and
to awaken in them an intelligent interest in the church's
affairs. " It is a significant fact in India to-day, that the
Methodist missions, by their compact organization, are
able to, or at any rate do, confer more ecclesiastical
and administrative power upon the native Church than
any other mission; while Congregational missions, the
least organized, are the most backward in this matter."^

2. Pastor's Salary. — One aid toward uniting the pastor
of a native church more closely to his people and thus of
increasing their sense of independence, is that suggested
by the Madras Conference. If he is paid by the mission-

^ Modak, Directory of Protestant Indian Christians, vol. ii., Appendix,
p, viii.

* Jones, India's Problem, p. 260.

234 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

aries, he is regarded as one of the foreign force instead
of being an integral part of the local church, and thus the
true pastor is lost in the perfunctory office of superin-
tendent. It was accordingly urged that he be paid through
some office-bearer in the church other than a representa-
tive of the foreign society.

3. Training to Govern. — Hitherto the foreign mission-
ary has had much to do with the governing of the native
church. There is a growing conviction that the desired
object of promoting self-government can be best attained
through making the missionary a trainer of those who are
to govern, instead of governing it directly. In view of
national characteristics inclining the members toward be-
ing led by those in religious authority, and because of the
grade of society from which the body of the church comes,
it requires far more self-effacement for the missionaries
to do this and makes greater demands upon their time
and patience than some are likely to possess. The Con-
ference urged that in the churches men of special ability be
sought out and charged with financial and other official
burdens and trained under the foreigner's eye. Failure
hitherto on the part of native church officials was felt to
be largely due to lack of training.

4. 'Panchayets. — The idea which Bishop Caldwell did
so much to make effective in his own mission, namely,
the use of the native institution of the panchayet, or
council of five householders, in the settlement of many
matters of church discipline, has received the endorsement
of the Madras Conference. If these native leaders were
recognized as possessing the requisite authority, it would
increase the sense of self-government and enlarge the
native responsibility in regard to right living. Some of
the other ideas of the Society which the Bishop repre-
sented, such as the forming of converts into Christian
Companies with a Christian headman over each, the head-
men meeting together to receive the missionary's counsel

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 235

and encouragement, have not only proven helpful as train-
ing in self-government in that Church, but in the Method-
ist bodies of the Empire also.

VIII. Self-extension of the Native Church

1. General Organizations. — Difficult as is the task of
developing self-government in the native Church, it is
equally hard to create an aggressive, self-propagating
spirit in its rank and file. The organization of the Volun-
teer Movement for Home Missions, effected in 1896, has
done a little to stimulate students in this direction; but a
number of home missionary societies established by
various missions have done far more for the Church at
large. Their object has been ideally, if not actually, a
fivefold one: (i) To quicken the interest of Christians
in work outside their immediate neighborhood; (2) to
utilize or secure gifts of money and men not available to
the foreign societies; (3) to provide the ministers and lay-
men of these churches with fuller opportunities for the
exercise of their administrative gifts; (4) to bring home
to the churches in a very definite manner their duty in
this connection; (5) and to develop initiative in the na-
tive church leaders, thus securing new methods indigenous
to the country and likely to aid the foreign force.

2. Missionary Bands. — The nearer field is to Be evan-
gelized through the formation of missionary bands,
described by the receni Conference in one of its resolu-
tions and in successful operation in many missions. One
such band was mentioned in the preceding chapter. These
entirely voluntary efforts exerted in their own neighbor-
hood increase interest in home evangelization and train
the participants for permanent work of that sort, in the
employ of the Church. Moreover, it stimulates others in
good positions to devote part of their leisure, especially
during vacations, to voluntary preaching.

236 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

IX. Educational Problems

1. Government 'Attitude. — Though education is so un-
questionably important a part of the missionary program,
it has its difficulties. " There is a serious conflict ahead
in the no distant future," writes Dr. Jones. " And this is
in part owing to the attitude of the government Educa-
tional Department and of the local governing bodies
towards mission institutions. There is no concealing the
fact that most of the English officials of the Educational
Department in India deem mission schools the most se-
rious rivals to, and regard missionary educators as quasi
enemies of, their departmental schools. These men have
recently assumed, and are increasingly assuming, an at-
titude of jealousy if not of hostility, to mission institu-
tions, chiefly because of their strength and excellence as
rival schools, and partly because of the Bible training
which is imparted to all the students of these schools, —
a training with which those officials have no sympathy,
and which they are wont to regard as an educational im-
pertinence.

2. Native Opposition — " Another fact of equal signifi-
cance is the attitude of District Boards and Municipal
Commissioners towards the schools of mission bodies.
Nearly all the members of local boards are native gentle-
men. They see the large influence of mission schools,
scattered as they are through their districts and towns, and
they regard them as Christian propaganda and as evangel-
izing agencies; and it is but natural that, under the impulse
of their new nationalism and of their interest in a Neo-
Hinduism, they should be jealous of mission schools, which
are the rivals of their own indigenous and growing insti-
tutions. And as they have the power of the purse and
make and withhold grants to different schools at their
pleasure, and as all the subordinate officers of the Edu-

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 237

cational Department are natives and are not in full sym-
pathy with mission schools, it can be easily seen how our
schools are doomed to suffer through an ever increasing
government aid toward their support."'

3. Another Estimate. — The view of the attitude of
government officials, native and foreign, just quoted, ex-
presses the opinion of not a few missionaries. The per-
sonal equation, of both the missionary and the official,
however, calls for another view of the Government's
attitude toward education. A missionary with wide expe-
rience thus writes : " While there are English inspectors
who dislike mission institutions, I believe they are the
exception. We have reason for profound gratitude that
the English officials are, as a rule, so friendly to us.
During my more than twenty years in India, the English
educational officers not only, but gentlemen of the Revenue
Department also, rendered me most substantial help, as
they have other members of our Mission. In the matter
of native officials, I may say that personally I have re-
ceived more help from native school inspectors than from
Europeans. My successor writes me that never have the
grants from Government been so liberal as during the last
year, and all of his schools are under native inspection.'"

4. Suitable Teachers. — Another sort of difficulty
arises from the scarcity of suitable Christian teachers for
mission schools. More than one-third of the teachers in
male schools are not Christians, and in consequence the
religious value of the education imparted is lessened. So
great is the demand for those who are Christians that the
salary given is greater than that of Hindu schoolmasters,
and this generates friction and financial questions. Hap-
pily it has resulted in an increasing patronage of normal
and training schools, but the tendencies of the government
training schools are unfavorable for the Christian life.

^ Jones, India's Problem, pp. 278, 279.
- Quoted from private correspondence.

238 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

This caused the recent conference at Madras to plead for
more Christian training institutions and for the provision
of special Bible normal courses and Christian hostels in
connection with government institutions. It also com-
mended those hostels under the care of the Young Men's
Christian Association.

X. Ferment of Religious Ideas

I. Arya Samaj. — The constantly increasing ferment in
the rehgious life and thought of native India is especially
manifest in the Arya Samaj, the most hostile to Christian-
ity of the samaj es. The seriousness of this opposition
may be seen from the ideals and methods of its founder,
the Swami Dayanand Sarasvati. " He was a dreamer of
splendid dreams," writes Rev. Dr. Griswold. " He had a
vision of India purged of her superstitions, filled with the
fruits of science, worshipping one God, fitted for self-
rule, having a place in the sisterhood of nations, and re-
stored to her ancient glory. All this was to be accom-
plished by throwing overboard the accumulated supersti-
tions of the centuries and returning to the pure and
inspired teachings of the Vedas. Thus the founder of the
Arya Samaj was a kind of Indian Elijah or John the
Baptist, who felt himself called to turn the hearts of the
degenerate children of modern India to their fathers of
the glorious Vedic Age, to reconcile the present with the
past. The character of his mission helps to account for
the violence of his methods of controversy. Elijah was not
especially gentle in his dealings with the prophets of
Baal, nor was Luther very tender toward the Roman
Church. . . . This illustrates exactly Swami Daya-
nand's attitude toward the degenerate Brahmanical Church
on the one hand, and the foreign faiths, Christianity and
Islam, on the other. In his opinion, the one needed
to be purged and pruned; the others to be extir-

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 239

pated. The sections in the Satyarth Prakash which
deal with the criticism of Islam and Christianity are evi-
dently intended to be the literature of such extirpation, i. e.,
to be the means of rooting out all such foreign supersti-
tions from the hearts of the sons of Aryavarta. For ex-
treme unfairness, for inability to state the position of
opponents without caricature, and for general crudeness,
these sections can hardly be matched in the whole litera-
ture of religious controversy.'" When it is remembered
that the more than 400 students in their college at Lahore
are imbued with his spirit and doctrines and that there
are in this Samaj a large proportion of highly educated
leaders, its formidable character may be seen.

2. The New Islam. — The educational ambitions of the
New Islam have already been referred to. This party,
known as Naturi or Rationalists, has gone so far in the
direction of making Mohammedanism like the higher re-
ligions of the world, that they have aroused opposition.
A " Society for the Defence of Islam " has become quite
prominent in Northwest India. " The methods of defence
adopted by this great organization have been, in brief,"
writes Dr. Wherry, " the establishment of Mohammedan
vernacular and Anglo-vernacular schools for the education
of Muslim youth, the publication of a literature, — books,
tracts, and newspapers, — for the refutation of anti-
Muslim publications, as well as for the commendation and
propagation of the religion of Islam. In addition to this
a Muslim propaganda has been organized, especially to
withstand and hinder the work of missions. Even zenana
teachers are supported, whose first duty is to break up,
if possible, the missionary zenana and girls' schools. Pres-
sure is brought to bear upon Muslim parents and families
to exclude the Christian ladies and workers. Moreover,
preachers are supported and sent here and there to preach
against the Christian religion, and to use every effort
^ Report of the Madras Conference, iijoz, p. 320,

240 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

to bring back to the Muslim fold any who have been con-
verted to Christianity. Christian perverts are sent out as
the chosen agents of this propaganda.'" Other movements
among Mohammedans, such as that of Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad, " the Messiah of the Twentieth Century," and
the efforts of Mr. White and others of " the Nazarene
New Sect," a mixture of Christianity and Mohammedan-
ism, are also inimical to missions.

3. Neo-Hinduism. — Of the past decade. Rev. T. E.
Slater said, at the Madras Conference : " India has been
stirred as she never was before. For good or for evil,
many of the things that are old are passing away; much
that is new to Indian feeling and life is pressing itself
forward. Instead of the studied silence of the past, there
is a constant discussion of religious themes and a reaching
out after something higher and more reasonable. A char-
acteristic creed, revealing alike the conservatism and the
despair of Hindu religious thought, was presented at the
beginning of the decade in a new Hindu monthly review,
published in Calcutta. . . . ' To the Hindu there is no
false religion, but every form of worship earnestly be-
lieved in is absolutely true for the believer and yields just
the results needed for his higher evolution. What is more,
Hindus believe that the religion and religious associations
in which a man is born and bred are a much better means
for the improvement of his mind and soul than a new one,
being in the direct line of his natural evolution.' "^

Developments. — As a result of Hinduism's unrest and
the efforts of individuals from the West, like Annie
Besant, Madame Blavatsky and Miss Noble, as well as
because of the leadership of many in the various samajes,
every variety of alloy of Hinduism and Christianity has
been thrust upon the Indian public ; and these have been
harmful to true religion in proportion as the counterfeit

' Report of the Madras Canf^rence, 1902, p. 343.

' Ibid., p. 343.

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 24I

is like the Christian original, from which it gains its
strongest features and beliefs. Moreover, the modernized
Hinduism makes use of the same agencies which Chris-
tianity has found so effective. It employs preaching, the
press, and education, both lower and higher; it is self-
supporting and self-propagating, enlisting as it does native
talent from the higher and well-to-do classes. Its use of
the press is especially to be noted. Its writers in general
are men of high literary ability and education. Thus " a
Madras magazine, called The Arya, a new champion of
Hinduism, was started in 1901, which has elected to give
up the defensive and to attack Christianity on its own
ground, the editor beginning by assailing the central fact
of the New Testament, the resurrection of Christ. The
skeptical arguments used are not original, nor are they
borrowed as they were some time ago from Ingersoll and
Bradlaugh, but are inspired by the higher criticism of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica. This is very suggestive and
shows the range of reading of the educated and the uses
made of it.'"

4. Root difficulties. — The reason why these religious
movements are so serious an obstacle in the way of the
missionary enterprise is that they are indigenous for the
most part and are espoused by the strong leaders of native
life and thought. They thus start with a presumption in
their favor; and to this they add enough of Christianity
to partly satisfy the hungry soul, while at the same time
they retain enough of the old leaven to make it easy for the
Hindu or Mohammedan to accept them without fear of
social ostracism or rupture of relations with family and
caste. The imitation of Christian methods still further
satisfies those who have been attracted to Christianity by
its beneficent fruits and who feel a desire for such aids.
Thus, in connection with the Church Missionary Society's
College at Cottayam, " one of the Malayalam munshis man-
^ Report of the Madras Conference, i^qi, p. 308,

242 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

aged the Hindu hostel, which had about thirty members
for the greater part of the year. In imitation of the Chris-
tians, they held a devotional service every Sunday evening
under the leadership of a high-caste Brahman boy. A
portion of the Bhagavad Gita was read and discussed and
various prayers recited. A Students' Young Men's Hindu
Association, too, was organized in rivalry of the Young
Men's Christian Association."^ While all these recent
movements are occasions for hopefulness, they are like-
wise sources of deep solicitude, as well as of occasional
defections to the new views of old faiths.

XI. The Government's Attitijde

1. Obstacles. — The pledged neutrality of the Govern-
ment toward all religions occasions further anxiety to the
missionary body. In the main it is observed, but there
is some reason for the remark that the only religion espe-
cially liable to suffer by this attitude is Christianity.
The Government's position of neutrality, moreover, is
" misunderstood by many natives and attributed more to a
lack of faith in Christianity than to the principle of even-
handed justice; while the gift in various ways of vastly
more money, or its equivalent, for the support of native
faiths than is given for the support of the Gospel, pro-
duces the same, if not a worse effect."^

Wicked Deeds and Officials. — Then, too, the attitude
of the Government toward the regulation of vice, especially
in the government camps, its support of the opium traffic,
and the ungodly character of some of its representatives,
who are supposed to be Christians by the populace, bring
reproach upon the Christian name.

2. The Other Side. — Yet this is but one aspect of the
governmental attitude toward missions, which in general

^ Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society, 1^02-1^03, p. 298.
^ Stewart, Life and Work in India, p. 38,

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 243

has been helpful; and if there are those in the official
ranks who are hostile to missions, there are many others
like the splendid Irishman, Lord John Lawrence, " the
savior of India," whose lives accord with his noble State-
paper, issued after the Mutiny, an extract from which we
quote : " All measures which are really and truly Christian
can be carried out in India, not only without danger to
British rule, but on the contrary with every advantage to
its stability. Christian things done in a Christian way
will never alienate the heathen. About such things there
are qualities which do not provoke, nor excite distrust, nor
harden to resistance. It is when unchristian things are
done in the name of Christianity, or when Christian things
are done in an unchristian way, that mischief and danger
are occasioned."' A missionary of more than twenty years'
experience in South India, Rev. J. H. Wyckoff, D. D.,
voices the opinion of many others in the following state-
ment concerning British officials : " I believe the general
influence of the Government is on the side of righteousness.
My experience among the natives of all classes leads me
to affirm that the rulers of India stand in the eyes of the
people, as the embodiment of integrity and justice. The
higher moral standard that has been adopted by many
Hindus, their greater regard for the truth, the increased
spirit of manliness and self-respect, their kindlier treat-
ment of woman, are not necessarily the result of mission
work, but are largely due to the influence, unconscious
though it may be, of the Englishman in India, in whom
these characteristics are peculiarly exhibited." If any
further proof of the helpfulness of British officials to the
missionary cause were desirea, one need only quote the
names and noble deeds of such men as Sir William Muif^
Sir Charles Aitchison, Sir Richard Temple, General Havge ,
lock, and a lost of other officials friendly to missions.

' Clark, The PunjdSt 'anSi 'Sindh Missions of ihg, 'SMlK^ W.issiono:':-
Society, p. 187,

244 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

XII. The Missionaries Themselves

I. Relations to Occidentals. — Having considered the
difficulties arising from sources mainly outside themselves,
the last look must be introspective. Superficial travelers,
whose knowledge of missions is gained from a flying tour
through India and contact with Europeans in hotels in its
great cities, would hold that the most serious obstacles
to missions lie in the missionaries and in their relations to
Europeans and natives. Most of the supposed facts tinder-
lying this shallow judgment are gained from a slight
knowledge of the missionaries. One of the latter writes :
" A group of missionaries generally presents a motley,
and, to an unfamiliar eye, a somewhat amusing aspect.
Clothing of different eras, dating from the time when their
respective wearers left home, mingled with local fashions
or individual whims, combine to give them a nondescript
appearance. This is one reason why old missionaries
shrink from durbars, levees, dinners, and calls on the
more fashionable English, and why they are disposed to
push out newcomers as their representatives, when duty
requires some attention to the demands of society."^ The
inexperience and freshness of such representatives, as well
as their crude views as to missions, may easily mislead
a Western traveler who happens to meet them on such
occasions.

Spiritual Contact. — Yet even on the missionary's own
ground as a minister of the Gospel, he is liable to be un-
justly estimated. He often feels called upon to expostulate
publicly or privately with open sinners among the Euro-
peans, and this frequently occasions animosity. His con-
science compels him either entirely to abstain from preach-
ing in English, or, if he consents to do so, his duty to the
Hindus impels him to give only a corner of his time to

^ Stewart, Life and JVorh in India, p. 57.

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 245

l^reparation. This fact' and his constant work of applying
the truth to Hindus makes his method of presentation as
objectionable to an Anglo-Indian audience as is his use of
English, which is vitiated by constant employment of the
vernacular.

2. Relations to Fellow-missionaries. — It is probably
true that no fellowship is more warm and enjoyable than
that existing between fellow-missionaries. Yet even here
difficulties may arise that are serious in proportion to the
strength of those associated together in the same mission
or station. Differences of judgment must arise; and
where only two are in the same station, each with equal
responsibility for its work, such a difference excites fric-
tion. In rare cases two men or two women in an isolated
station are unfortunately uncongenial, and the enforced
close contact weakens their friendship and sometimes their
influence and power. The requirements of many societies,
which seek those for missionaries who are men of peace
and able to live in harmony with their brethren, are wise
ones, especially in view of provocative conditions in India's
climate and diseases. " Piety transplanted from a tem-
perate to a tropical zone is likely to wither, when the
thermometer rises to 118 degrees in the shade and 170 in
the sun. Provocation from human sources, too, is sure
then'to be at its most active point. If outbreaks or storms
ever arise among either natives or foreigners, they are
certain to occur in the summer season. . . . The dis-
eases of -the country, too, produce a peculiarly harassing
effect upon the temper. Everybody knows how liver com-
plaint, dyspepsia, malarial fever, and affections of the
nervous system tend to depress the spirits of the patient
and make him irritable."^ Though the writer just quoted
is speaking of the hot Punjab, the statement is to some
extent true of all India; and it shows the need of charity
for discordant notes in missionary harmony and suggests

'■ Stewart, Life and Work in India, pp. 368, 369.

246 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

the need of prayer on the part of the Aarons and Hurs
who hold up the weary hands of warriors at the front.

3. Native and Foreign Forces. — Missionaries have
been criticised for the relations existing between them and
the native Church and especially its leaders. Much of this
criticism is groundless. It is true, however, that the
missionaries themselves deplore the inevitable chasm
which separates them from their beloved people. A mis-
sionary statesman long ago wrote : ' Distinctions of race
are irrepressible. They are comparatively weak in the
early stages of a mission, because all the superiority is on
the one side. But as the native race advances in intelligence,
and as their power of argfuing strengthens, as they excel
in writing sensational statements, as they become our
rivals in the pulpit and on the platform, long cherished
but dormant prejudices and even passions will occasionally
burst forth. . . . Race distinctions will probably rise
in intensity with the progress of the mission.'" To fuse
and combine these refractory elements no agent is so
powerful as genuine love united with a humble willing-
ness to live close to the heart of the people, even if one
cannot live in their garb and homes.

Native Helpers. — The primal root of bitterness between
missionaries and their native helpers is due to the relation
of employer to employee. The societies pay no salary, in
the strict sense of the word, to the missionaries, but rather
grant allowances for necessary and effective subsistence.
Yet even on this scale the amount received by the native
pastor is far less than that paid to his superintending mis-
sionary. As the English Government salaries its agents
on the basis of the work done and of equal qualifications,
irrespective of race requirements, the difference is a cause
of criticism. Moreover, when working together in the
field, their actual needs, as well as native ideas as to the

» Venn, quoted by Clark, The Punjab and Sindh Missions of the
Church Missionary Society, p. 342.

PROBLEMS AND OPPONENTS 247

fitness of things, prevent missionaries and their assistants
from living on the same basis, much less together. Natu-
rally the missionary will fare better. Attempts to live on
the same scale have been abandoned, even by the Salva-
tion Army. Perhaps no solution of this difficulty excels
that of Xavier, who understood the Hindu mind when
he wrote : " Everywhere men like to be cured tenderly,
but in no country more than in India. The Indian consti-
tution is, when offended, as brittle as glass. It resists a
sharp stroke, or breaks into shivers ; by kind treatment
it may be bent and drawn out as you will. By entreaties
and mildness you may in this country accomplish anything ;
by threats and severity, nothing at all."^

4. The Inner Life. — No human factor in India's evan-
gelization is so central as the missionary's spiritual life,
and few are more apt to yield to the unfavorable environ-
ment and thus lose power. The cark of constant care, the
frequent loneliness of the solitary worker, the lack of spir-
itual companionship even when one is in the midst of
Christians, disappointment over converts, the life so busy
as to leave little time for spiritual nurture — these and a
thousand other causes militate against inward peace and
outward efficiency. The workers, realizing their need,
are more and more availing themselves of special seasons
for unitedly seeking spiritual refreshment and power. The
daily dependence must be, however, what the veteran Weit-
brecht prescribed for a young missionary : " Let me af-
fectionately advise you as an elder brother to adopt a reso-
lution, with a view to advance your growth in grace and
spirituality and scriptural knowledge, which I have found
most useful. I spend at least half an hour, and, if possi-
ble, one hour, very early, and again before bedtime, in
reading, meditation, and prayer. This has a remarkable
effect in keeping one in that calm, proper, peaceful, cheer-
ful frame of mind — and this precious jewel one always
^ Murdoch, Indian Missionary Manual, p. 350, 3rd ed.

248 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

is in danger of losing, especially in India — we so much re-
quire to fit us for the great work we have to do; and it
imparts tact and feeling, helping us to act and speak as
we should^do at all hours.'"

' Murdoch, Indian Missionary Manual, p. 16, 3rd ed.

VIII

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Missionaries to India are very happy in their work
and are no less optimistic about its results. Being under
Occidental rule, the Empire is more accurately known
from a religious point of view than any other non-Chris-
tian land; and hence one is better able to judge as to the
value of missions there than in China, which in some
respects surpasses India as a mission field. A survey of
what has been accomplished ought to inspire all friends
of Christianity the world around. The true significance
of the progress made can only be realized when the un-
usual difficulties, mentioned in previous chapters, particu-
larly in that immediately preceding, are borne in mind. If
such manifest success is possible in India, what may we
not hope for in more favored lands?

I. A Glance at Statistics

On subsequent pages will be found the latest available
statistics furnished us from missionary society offices;
here some facts from tables collected by missionaries in
India will be used in order to compare the figures with
preceding statistics gathered in the same way, and also
in order to make use of data from the decennial censuses,
which are gathered a year later by the Government.
Among the striking figures reported at the Madras Con-
ference of 1902 were the following:'

» See Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, p. 323.
249

250 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

I. Protestant Missionary Statistics, i8po-ipoo

q o

80 H '^

o w go

. . '-' z

Male Agency: g g gg

Foreign and Eurasian ordained agents . 1,049 9' 8 + 14.3

Asian ordained agents 905 1 943 — 4

Foreign and Eurasian catechists or

preachers iii 122 — 9

Asian catechists or preachers .... 6,653 3,987 + 69.4

Foreign and Eurasian teachers . , , 41* 85 — 51.8

Asian teachers 9,05° S)^79 + 59'4

Female Agency:
Foreign and Eurasian agents .... 1,302 770 + 69.1

Asian agents 5,965 3,420 + 74.4

Medical:

Foreign and Eurasian agency .... 193* 97* + 99

Asian medical agency 157* 168* — 6.5

Foreign and Eurasian trained nurses . 44* %

Asian trained nurses ....... 104* %

Medical work, evangelists, etc. , . . 168* j

Leper asylum agency 57 j

Education, male:

Theological and training school students 1,810 1,743 + 3'8
College and upper school students . . 52,597 55,063 — 4.5
Lower school pupils 162,645^^^132,312 + 22.9

Education, female :

Upper and middle girls' school pupils . i',So8 ) , -i- 2? 2
Primary girls' school pupils 79,144 ) '"•^ ^'

Boarding pupils :
Males in boarding schools and hostels . 14,975 %

Females in boarding schools and hostels 13,514 7,604 + 77.7

Zenana work:
Number of pupils 39,894* 32,659* + 22.2

General Items :

Total Christian agency 25,799 16,189 + 59-3

Communicants 343,906 216,659 + 58-7

Christian community, approximately . 978,936 648,843 + 50.9

* Burma not returned,
t Returns incomplete.
% Neither India nor Burma returned.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 25 1

Remarks. — An inspection of these figures will show a
gain per cent, in every item where comparison between
1890 and 1900 is possible, except in foreign and Eurasian
catechists or preachers and in college and upper school
students. In two other items, concerning which the re-
turns were incomplete, there is also a slight loss. The
last three items are especially interesting. Assuming that
the statistics are equally trustworthy in the years com-
pared, there has been an increase of more than one-half
in each item. One would think with a gain of 59.3 per
cent, in the Christian agency, that there would be an even
larger percentage of gain in the number of communi-
cants, which, however, is not the case. It surely would be
expected that when both the agency and the number of
communicants had so largely increased, the Christian
community would grow even more rapidly, but just in this
item the greatest falling off is noticeable. Yet whatever the
explanation of this is, the gains of the decade are most en-
couraging, particularly those having to do with education.

2. Christianity and Other Religions. — Comparison of
the census data for the different religions of India, in-
cluding Burma, furnishes occasion for further gratitude
to God.' For the decade 1890 to 1900 the figures are as
follows :

Protestant native Christians, about . . 50.87 per cent, increase,

Buddhists 32-88

Non-Protestant native Christians . . 21.44

Sikhs 15-07

Mohammedans • 8.96

Jews 6.01

Parsees 4-7^

Hindus 28 " " decrease.

Jains . . 5-82

Animistic, etc 6.15

Increase of total population 2.45

1 See Report of the Madras Conference, p. 218.

252 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

•According to these census tigures the increase of the
Protestant native Christian community has surpassed that
of all other faiths. As the Buddhist gains are in India's
Burman territory, they do not affect the peninsula. In
point of percentage, the Protestant community increased
more than three times as much as did the Sikhs, and more
than five times as much as the Mohammedans; whereas,
Hinduism, whether its losses are due to famines, to the
inroads of other religions, to emigration, or to all com-
Dined, has retrograded instead of gained ground during
the ten years. Perhaps the most encouraging feature of
the census, however, is the fact that the native Protestant
community has increased in a ratio nearly twenty-one times
as great as that of the entire population of India.

3. Educational Comparisons. — As the Protestant com-
munity constitutes only .354 of one per cent, of the total
population it could hardly be expected to furnish any large
proportion of the school-going portion of the Empire. As
a matter of fact, in 1900 those in missionary institutions
constituted 7.69 per cent, of all studying, — that is, Prot-
estants supply more than twenty-one times their quota
of students and pupils.'' From pages 62, 63, of Protestant
Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, Statistical Tables,
ipoo, one reaclies an almost identical result as to the rela-
tive proportion of honors won by the Protestant students in
institutions looking toward university matriculation and
degrees, where they work side by side with non-Christian
students. During the years 1891-1900, of those who ma-
triculated or who passed First Arts', Bachelor's, or Mas-
ter's examinations the Protestants numbered 1,085 > while
their relation to the entire population would require us to
look for forty-four only. It is interesting to note from the
data of the pamphlet just referred to, that what is now the

^ Compare statistics in Statesman's Year-Book, 190$, pp. 142, 143, with
those in Protestant Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, Statistical
Tables, 1900, pp. 62, 63,

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 253

United Free Church of Scotland, during the decade named,
has graduated almost exactly three-fourths of the entire
number who from missionary institutions have gained
B. A. or M. A. degrees, thus nobly following up the prece-
dents set by their great representative, Dr. Duff. Madras
Christian College easily ranks first in this respect.

4. Forty Years' Progress. — Indian missionaries have
collected statistics for each decennium since 1851, though
the last two issues of the tables have been published to the
end of 1890 and 1900, thus differing by part of a year
from the government census. In the earlier decades of this
period some of the items gathered later do not appear.
These tables, summarized in their chief items for half a
century, will be found in Appendix B. A few leading
items from that table will aid us in estimating the proba*ble
future of mission work in India. As Burman statistics
are not available for 185 1, the comparisons must be taken
from later decades in order to include all of India.

1861 igoo

Ordained foreigners and Eurasians 501 1,049

" Asians 143 905

Asian catechists or preachers i>677 6,653

" organized congregations 643 6,535

" communicants 43>4iS 343>9o6

" Christian community 198,100 978,936

College and upper school male students . . . 21,676 52,597

Boarding schools, etc., males 2,988 14,975

Lower school pupils, males . . 40>i64 162,645

Boarding schools, etc., females 4.01S 13.514

Girls' school pupils i7,035 90.752

Foreign and Eurasian female agents in 1871 . 405 1,302

Asian female agents in 1871! 863 5,965

Theological and training school students iniS?! 1,561 1,810
Males, passed matriculates, First Arts, B. A.,

M. A. in missionary institutions, 1861-1871 . 2,306

Number of above who passed in 1891-1900 . . 12,194

Zenana pupils in India without Burma, in 1871 . 1.997

« « " •' '* " " I poo. 39.894

254 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Remarks. — The foregoing table indicates what progress
has been made in a trifle over a generation. The fuller
one in Appendix B. is even more encouraging, since it
shows how the last decade has surpassed preceding ones
in most points of advance. Momentum is evident as the
years pass. Thus, considering the past thirty years only
and the single item of the growth in the number of com-
municants, we have the following results: During the
years 1871-1881 they increased from 73,330 to 138,254, a
gain of 88.54 per cent.; from 1881 to 1890 — nine years
— they passed from 138,254 to 215,759, ^ g^-'ii of 56.06
per cent; and during the years 1890-1900 the communi-
cants increased 59.46 per cent, passing from 215,759 to
343,906. If we omit the unusually high percentage of
1871-1881 and take as a safer figure the average per-
centage of increase of the two periods 1881-1890 and 1890-
1900, — which is one year short of two decades, — namely,
57.76 per cent, this figure applied to the membership of
1900 and continued until 1930 would give us then 1,350,299
communicants. There is every reason to believe, however,
that such a computation is altogether too conservative,
and hence larger results may be expected in 1930.

5. Latest Statistics Summarized. — The previous calcu-
lations have been based on data gathered in India itself,
which are not quite as late as material furnished by the
various societies and found in full in Appendix C. The
f ollowing- items in that table deserve notice :

Foreign missionaries, both sexes 4, 104

Native workers, both sexes 25)72?

Native communicants 438,076

Native community, incl. communicants and adherents . 1,042,300

Lower schools for both sexes 10,100

Pupils in same 364,632

Higher institutions for both sexes oiZ

Students in same 29,632

Foreign physicians, both sexes 226

Patients annually treated 1,792,434

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 255

It should be noted that the increase in communicants has
been 16.32 per cent, for the two years since the societies
sent data for the second volume of the Geography and
Atlas of Protestant Missions}

6. Christians as Distributed Locally. — Appendix C.
shows approximately the distribution of the Protestant
community in India. While the returns are not careful
in stating provincial locations in every case, the table
below will give the approximate location of the foreign
and native force and of the native communicants:

§ 5 e i .

w rs M E" u EH

K S S H B s z

o M « < o o <

ft E < Z ft u u

Ajmere-Merwara 35 334 2,457

Assam 94 263 13,828

Baluchistan 13 7 S3

Baroda 6 58 901

Bengal 735 3,234 83,228

Berar 47 59 618

Bombay 509 1,918 22,046

Burma 241 2,219 46>877

Central India 57 121 448

Central Provinces 242 778 7,339

Haidarabad 69 601 6,513

Kashmir 34 5 10

Madras 1,020 8,959 169,634

Mysore 65 597 1,993

Northwest Frontier Province .... 28 17 102

Punjab 407 848 10,193

Rajputana 25 245 3,322

Sikkim i 22 loi

United Provinces 4°6 3>467 68,138

The reader may compare these figures with those on the
sketch-map, found opposite page no, though he should
remember that census data are more general than figures
furnished by missionary societies.

» See Sections XVI., XVIII., pp. 24, 25, of that volume.

256 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

II. Extra-statistical Results of Indian Missions

1. Mission Plants. — One of the most surprising feat-
ures of the Exhibit held in connection with the Ecumenical
Conference at New York in 1900 was the ocular demon-
stration through photographs, charts, handiwork, etc., of
what Indian missions possess in the way of an effective
plant for the work doing. No data are available to make
possible an accurate statement of its value, but an eminent
Indian authority writes : " The thousands of acres of land
and the many thousands of substantial edifices erected and
dedicated to the cause of Christ in connection with these
missions represent an investment of at least ten million
dollars; and this money not only represents the generosity
of Christians in the West, it also includes the self-denying
offerings of Indian Christians, who from their poverty
have given liberally to build up the cause which is dear
to their hearts. Mission educational institutions are housed
in a legion of substantial and beautiful buildings, ranging
from the massive, imposing structures of the Madras
Christian College downward; churches there are of all
sizes and architectural design, from the magnificent and
beautiful stone edifice which accommodates its thousands
and which was erected by the Church Missionary Society
in Megnanapuram, Tinnevelly, down to the unpretentious
prayer-house of a small village congregation. A host of
suitable buildings for hospitals, presses, and publishing
houses, residences for missionaries and native agents,
school dormitories, gymnasia, and lecture halls. Young
Men's Christian Association and other society buildings —
all these represent that power for service, incarnate in
brick and mortar, which is invaluable and even indispensa-
ble to the great missionary enterprise in that land."'

2. Christian Tools. — Almost as important as the plant

^ Jones, In(lia'$ Pro}?lcm, pp. 300, 301,

RESULTS AND OPPOKTUNITIES 257

Is the fine supply of tools now ready to the hand of the
"workers. The product of the forty-three mission presses
of India furnishes every grade of literary, educational,
and evangelistic tool, from the cheapest leaflet to the
most expensive volume in rare binding, and to the number
of 4,320,285 copies annually.' This record is almost twice
as great as that of China, its nearest competitor. Chief
among these instruments of warfare against ignorance,
both mental and spiritual, is the Word of God. " Bible
work in India is now conducted in about sixty languages
and dialects. The entire Bible is translated into all the
great vernaculars, as well as into Sanskrit, Arabic, and
Persian. In other languages the New Testament is found
complete. But in the larger part of the languages thus far
utilized, only portions have yet been translated, in some
instances only a single Gospel. . . . Extensive re-
visions have been undertaken in nearly all the prominent
versions of the Bible, some of which have been completed,
while others are still in progress."^ This item of tools is
significant, not so much on account of the numbers quoted,
but for the reason that the missionary in India is relieved
at this stage of the enterprise of the serious toil resting on
those who cannot undertake work until the school-room
and the church are well stocked with these invaluable aids.
Moreover, in a land where hostility to Christianity is so
strong, especially among the better classes, effective litera-
ture is a secret messenger from God to the immured or
timorous soul. No missionary land is so well supplied
with helpful literature as India.

3. Native Agency. — The native Christian catechists,
preachers, teachers, and pastors are a most important asset.
Apply the following words of Malcom to the majority in
the regiments of the Indian native contingent, and one can
imagine the power resident in their ranks. " The import-

'Dennis, Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions, pp. 177, 178, 269.
'Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. J99, aoo.

258 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

ance of this class of auxiliaries can scarcely be too highly
estimated. Without risk of health and with little expense
or inconvenience, they can carry the tidings of salvation
where a missionary can not go, or may not be sent for an
age. They can travel, eat, sit, and lodge as the natives
do. Between these and themselves there is not that awful
distance which can scarcely be overcome by a missionary.
Their knowledge of the language is complete, which can
seldom be said of a foreigner. They know from experience
the exact temptations, doubts, difficulties, and prejudices
of their hearers. They can talk with an inquirer often and
long, without drawing opposition upon him before he has
become enlightened and firm enough to endure it."^ Many
of these leaders are well educated. " They are faithful
workers," writes Dr. Jones, " and are increasingly worthy,
and enjoy the confidence of their missionary associates.
Among the native agents of our Protestant missions in
South India alone there are about 100 university graduates,
200 First in Arts, — the degree granted after two years
of college work, — and 600 university matriculates. This
thorough utilization of a strong, cultured, native agency
is one of the most striking results of the last century's
work in that land. And it is the more remarkable in the
case of the women, since a generation ago hardly any
of the weaker sex were in mission employ, while to-day
the missions of South India alcne employ 3,000 of them.
It is practically the creation of a mighty and most faithful
and devoted agency in one generation.'"

4. Native Church. — The native Church in its rank and
file is also a remarkable result of missionary effort, under
the blessing of God. It may be ignorant and caste-ham-
pered and erring; but the Church at Corinth was also
ignorant with " not many wise after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble." And, alas ! like the Corinthians,

^ Murdoch, Indian Missionary Manual^ p. 296, 3rd ed,
^ Jones, India's Problem, p. 306.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 259

there are also sinful " saints " not a few among the Indian
Christians. Set over against such persons the vast num-
ber of those who are living simple, Gospel lives, testify-
ing to the world through their words and actions of the
grace of God which is in them, and then recall that it was
not a century ago when the holy Henry Martyn despaired
of ever seeing so great a miracle as a Hindu truly con-
verted to God any more than he could hope to see one
rise from the grave.

One Test. — Asa single test of the virility of the aver-
age Christian convert in India, consider the amount con-
tributed for religious purposes by those who belong almost
entirely to that fifth of the Indian people who, according
to government statistics, are in a chronic state of hunger.
The same statistics state that the average income for a
man having a family is less than $1.50 per month. "A
few years ago," writes Dr. Jones, " I investigated carefully
the economic conditions of the most prosperous and largest
village congregation of the Madura Mission. I discovered
that $1.66 was the average monthly income of each family
of that congregation. And that meant only thirty-three
cents a month for the support of each member of a family !
We have congregations whose income is less than this;
and yet the members of that Mission contributed over
seventy-five cents per church member as their offering for
1900. For all the Protestant missions in South India the
average offering per church member during 1900 was
fifty-two cents. For South India this represented an ag-
gregate sum of $83,000, or about seven and one-half per
cent, of the total sum expended in the missions during that
year. ... If our American Christians contributed for
the cause of Christ a percentage of their income equal to
that of the native Christians of India, they would quadruple
their benevolence.'" The result of such enlarged contribu-
tions at home would solve the financial problem.

1 Jones, India's Problem, pp. 325, 326.

260 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

5. Native Leaders. — The impression that the Indian
Church is without any members of distinction is dispelled
by Mr. Modak's volumes, from which the following facts
are quoted. There are in the Church:

15 Protestant Indian Christian civil engineers.

92
106
354

59°

646

1,010

1,098

" lawyers.

Christians who have visited foreign countries.
Christian traders.

" medical men.

" authors and editors.

" ordained ministers.
Christians in government service.

" In these calculations many traders whose income is
small have not been counted, nor have such government
servants been named as hold very humble positions. Of
mechanical engineers there is a large class forming a
strong proportion of those who work as joiners and fitters
in workshops and factories. The number of those who
have visited foreign countries does not include those who
have accompanied Europeans as their domestic servants."*
Examples. — A few conspicuous names are singled out
of the mass to illustrate the summary given. Others may
be found in abundance in Carey's three octavo volumes,
entitled Oriental Christian Biography, in Murdoch's
Sketches of Indian Christians, and elsewhere. Begin-
ning, with those early confessors, Krishna Pal and Ko
Thah-byii, already mentioned, one passes down through
the century noticing the names of such high-caste converts
as Krishna Mohan Banerjea, D. L., distinguished as a
Hindu editor and, after his conversion, as a professor in
Bishop's College, as a clergyman of the Church of Eng-
land, and above all as the native father of Bengali litera-
ture; of Ram Chandra Bose, M. A., whose career as an
educator would have placed him in the highest official

^ Modak, Directory of Protestant Indian Christians, vol. ii., Appendix,
jp. ii.

RESULTS AND OPPOETUNITIES 261

position, had he not chosen to become an evangelist under
the American Methodists, until the demands made upon
him as a lecturer in India and at Chicago University —
where he gained his M. A. — brought him before a larger
audience; of Professor Ram Chandra, whose work on the
Problems of Maxima and Minima made his name famous in
the Universities of Europe, as did later writings on Differ-
ential and Integral Calculus, and who became head of the
Department of Instruction in one of the native states; of
Rev. Imad-ud-din, D. D., the most distinguished accession
from Indian Mohammedanism, whose conversion is of
thrilling interest, and whose twenty-four Christian books
are a most valued addition to Indian literature ; and of
Rev. Narayan Sheshadri, a Brahman convert of Dr. John
Wilson, who gained so enviable a reputation during his
visit in America, whence he carried home from McGill
University of Montreal the degree of D. D. Nor do these
men belong only to the past. At King Edward's corona-
tion in London as Emperor of India, twenty representa-
tives of the native Indian Church were present, six of
them being ruling princes. Through the most distin-
guished of these. Sir Harnam Singh Ahluwalia,
K. C. I. E., the Indian Christians presented to their new
Sovereign an address, a single paragraph of which we
quote as showing the royal spirit of the commonalty and
leaders of the native Church alike. " Professing the faith!
of which Your Majesty is the Defender, we devoutly pray
that the century which is marked by the beginning of your
reign may be signalized by unprecedented triumphs in the
progress of Christ's Kingdom, and that Your Majesty's
righteous rule may be graciously used by God to further
the great end."^

6. A New Womanhood. — As before intimated, Chris-
tianity's greatest triumph in India has been its creation of

^Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the
Bast, xpOi-ipo5, p. 179.

262 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

a new Christian womanhood. In the life of the Christian
community she already has a high place of honor and in-
fluence. Instead of her education being under the taboo
of the Bhagavat, " The Vedas are not to be heard either
by the servile class, women, or degraded Brahmans,'' • — a
taboo which included pronunciation, grammar, versification,
arithmetic, etc., — recent educational statistics show that
on March 31, 1901, there were in Indian schools 429,490
women and girls.^ According to the tables in Protestant
Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, giving the data to
the end of 1900, there were 106,266 women and girls under
instruction in mission schools only. While the data are not
complete, they show that at least one-fifth of the total
number of female scholars and students was in schools of
the Christian Church.

Notable Women. — Illustrations of the sort of woman-
hood which is produced by the Christian Church are most
interesting. Take, for instance, the Sorabjis of Western
India, a family of converted Parsees. " One of the daugh-
ters of the family, the widow of an Englishman, lives in
London and has delighted tHe Queen by her exquisite ren-
dering of Persian songs. One sister is an artist, whose
paintings are exhibited in Paris and London. One is a
surgeon of distinction. It was another daughter of this
family who was the only representative of her sex from
the Orient at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The
most distinguished of these seven sisters is Cornelia So-
rabji, the barrister. Her graduating paper on ' Roman
Law ' at Oxford was classed among the best papers pro-
duced by the pupils of that famous institution. She is the
first lady barrister of India, and is not only a powerful
advocate, but also a brilliant writer, as her book and her
articles on the woman question in the Nineteenth Century
amply testify.'"' The two Satthianadhans, one the mother

* Statesmon*s Year-Book, 1903, p. 143.

* Jones, India's Probiem^ p. 333.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 263

and the other the wife of the brilliant professor of Mental
and Moral Science in the Presidency College, Madras, are
other illustrations of rare intellectual and literary ability,
— the younger woman gained an M. A., — as well as of
deeply consecrated lives. Mrs. . Tabitha Bauboo of the
Free Church of Scotland Mission was the pioneer of
zenana teaching in high class Hindu families and was also
a distinguished educator. One of our most spiritual hymns,
" In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to
hide," suggests the power as a writer of Miss Goreh,
daughter of the distinguished clergyman of the High
Church party in India, Rev. Nehemiah Goreh. American
audiences recall the grace and winsomeness of Miss Lila-
vati Singh, B. A. " It was after hearing Miss Singh's ad-
dress on the Results of Higher Education, of which she
herself is an exponent', that General Harrison said, ' If I
had given a million dollars to foreign missions, I should
count it wisely invested, if it led to the conversion of that
one woman,' "^ a statement that many besides the late ex-
President would heartily endorse. Miss Chandra Mukhi
Bose, M. 'A., — the first Indian woman to receive that de-
gree, — is a fine illustration of what can be done for the
Church through education. She is the accomplished Prin-
cipal of the Bethune Girls' College in Calcutta. And who
in the civilized world does not know Pundita Ramabai and
her career as a philanthropist, educator, and Christian re-
former ? Any land might well be proud of such a name,
and any Church under whose banner she fought would
be assured of victory in that division.

7. 'Native Philanthropies. — One of the richest fruits of
missionary effort is the appearance of initiative in the
native Church itself. Already Christian activity has
found exercise in enterprises no'f a few, of which Dr.
Jones notes Miss Chuckerbutty's flourishing orphanages,
Mrs. Sorabji's High School for Women, the Gopalgange

1 Ecumenical Missionary Conference, N. Y., igoo, vol. i., p, 47,

264 INDIA AND CHRISTIA>I OPPORTUNITY

Mission of Rev. M. N. Bose, and Dr. B. P. Keskar's
Orphanage and Industrial Mission at Sholapur. He like-
wise mentions more fully Pundita Ramabai's well-knowri
institution for child-widows at Poona, and the later but
wider work in the interest of some 2,000 waifs and orphans
of her own sex. While financial support is largely derived
from the Occident, she is its soul and receives the aid of
fellow Indians. Thus this Brahman widow is a Christian
Barnardo, as well as a social reformer.

8. Evangelistic Undertakings. — Even more significant is
the emergence of native Christians of unusual evangelistic
fervor and power. Conspicuous movements are yearly
coming to the front, one recent instance of which must
suffice. It is the Ko San-ye Movement in Burma, about
which the missionaries are still in doubt, though it seems
to be a remarkable instance of God's power to use a single
man. A converted Buddhist ascetic, this man of forty is
a John the Baptist to the missionaries with whom he heart-
ily cooperates. A discriminating missionary who has nar-
rowly watched his work, mentions the following positive
results of his work thus far: "(i) It has arrested the drift
into Buddhism, which was carrying away the heathen
Karens and making them as inaccessible to the Gospel as
the Burmans. (2) It has weaned many of the Karens
from a multitude of customs connected with the old Karen
demon worship, customs which have been a great stum-
bling-block in the way of accepting Christ. (3) It has
awakened the Karens out of the sordid materialism, which
made so many of them indifferent to any interests above
those of the body, and hence made them indifferent to the
Gospel, with its news of spiritual blessings. (4) It has
brought many to a real conviction of the existence, unity,
and fatherhood of God. (5) It has provided a wide-open
door for evangelistic effort. Ko San-ye's adherents re-
ceive the Christian preachers gladly, even when they do
not accept Christianity. In many quarters, where three

RESULTS AND OPPOKTUNITIES 265

years ago our preaching was met with indifference, it is
now eagerly listened to. (6) On the Rangoon field the
missionaries and the Karen pastors^have actually gathered
hundreds of Ko San-ye's followers into the churches. On
the Henzada field few have as yet come into the.church.
Many say that they will, but -the movement is slow. This
is not altogether a cause of regret. As Ko San-ye himself
says : ' There is no use in baptizing them until they re-
ceive a new heart.' " . . . " His object as expressed
to me is to lead the heathen gradually to Christ. He
seems to think that the heathen Karens will be puzzled
and frightened by being asked to accept the Gospel imme-
diately. The Karens have largely departed from the
monotheism of their ancestors ; and Ko San-ye seeks, by
a use of the ancient Karen legends, to bring back his peo-
ple to a purified form of that monotheism. He thinks —
and experience proves that he rightly thinks — that this
will be a comparatively easy step for them. He also thinks
that when they have come to worship God and have for-
saken Buddhism and the old Karen demon-worship, they
will be in a favorable condition to receive the Gospel.'"
His phenomenal ability to raise money for religious pur-
poses and his wisdom in forming industrial settlements are
other features of this remarkable man's career.

III. Leavening the Empire

I. Indian Law. — While there is a tendency to overesti-
mate missionary influence in the improved social and
moral legislation of the Empire, there is no question but
that what Dr. George Smith has been quoted as saying of
the East India Company's legislation is also true of later
measures. " Not fewer than twenty laws have thus been
enacted in that land during the last century, with a view
of putting an end to religious customs which robbed thou-

^ Baptist Missionary Magasine, September, 1903, pp. 637-639.

a56 INDIA' AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

sands of people annually of life itself, and deprived many
thousands more of the most elementary and inalienable
rights of human beings. So it has become penal to do any
one of the following things, all of which were regarded
as expressions of the highest religious devotion and were
committed with the sanction of the ancestral faith and
under the inspiration of its benediction : To burn widows ;
to expose parents to death on the banks of the Ganges;
to offer up human sacrifices ; to murder children, either by
throwing them into the Ganges, or by the Rajput secret
method of infanticide; to encourage men to throw away
their lives under temple cars and in other ways of religious
devotion; to encourage various forms of voluntary self-
torture and self-mutilation ; to outrage girls under a certain
age.'" This is only a concrete form of the statement made
in general terms in the " Report of the Secretary of State
and Council of India upon the Moral and Material Prog-
ress of India for 1872-1873," a sentence of which, referring
to the missionaries, reads : " They have frequently ad-
dressed the Indian Government on important social ques-
tions involving the welfare of the native community, and
have suggested valuable improvements on existing laws.'"
2. 'Reforms. — Reforms which have shown their
strength in the national conscience only have been fur-
thered by Christian missions. Among these may be named
such agitations as have resulted in deep convictions con-
cerning the following subjects: (i) The cruel treatment
of widows, especially those who are young; (2) the fur-
thering of education among girls and women, which
gained its first object-lessons in early Christian schools,
and whose principal advocates have been missionaries from
the Serampore trio and Duff down to the deliverances
of the Madras Conference of 1902; (3) the acknowledge-
ment of the brotherhood of man, conspicuously in the mat-

^ Jones, India's Problem, p. 339.
'Blue Book, XII., Education, p. 153.

RESULTS AND OPPOETUNITIES 1267

t'er of caste, which Dr. Wilson characterized as " the off-
spring of pride and deceit, the mainspring of hatred, di-
vision, alienation, and tyranny'; (4) the feeling against
nautch women, who are the seductive sirens annually al-
luring to death, under Teligious sanctions, thousands of
India's youth; (5) the demand for a higher moral char-
acter in public men, which was voiced in a resolution
passed by the Social Conference of 1894, that the " private
life and morals of public men should be pure and self-
denying, as the proper discharge of their duties demands " ;
(6) the growing regard for truth, which is so character-
istic of the Church and which was so conspicuously absent
in the India of a century ago; and (7) the greater preva-
lence of honesty and a sense of duty among the higher
ranks of society.^ The Indian National Congress, which
brings together annually some 5,000 native gentlemen for
the discussion of matters of state and of society, is too
often critical and abusive in its tone; yet on its higher
side, its deliberations are at once helpful and difficult to
explain had there not arisen a better social and moral
conscience as a by-product of Christian teaching.

3. Christian Ideals. — In the realm of religion Chris-
tianity has widely leavened the Indian Empire. True ideas
of God, the annulling of the old divorce between morality
and religion, thus uniting again what God meant should
never be dissevered, and the disintegration of the old views
of worship by the introduction of the spiritual elements
of true prayer and consecration, — these are more impor-
tant contributions of Christian missions to India's moral
development, and they are so regarded by the leaders in
native religious reforms.

The Ideal. — But far above all those abstract ideas of

morality and religion which have come from the Christian

faith is Christianity's Incarnate Ideal, who has been

greeted with enthusiasm by men and women of all the In-

'See Murdoch, History of Christianity in India, pp. 126-128,

268' INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY'

dian creeds. The devotion to Jesus as the highest of all
ideals is one of the most hopeful signs of the present day
in India. Proof of this enthusiasm for Jesus has already
been seen in Chapter IV.; but another significant utter-
ance, typical of many similar ones, is subjoined. It is
from an address delivered in the theater of the Medical
College, Calcutta, on May 5, 1866, by Keshab Chander
Sen. Speaking of Jesus, he says : " How He lived and
died; how His ministry, extending over three short years,
produced amazing results and created almost new life in
His followers; how His words, spoken in thrilling but
simple eloquence, flew like wildfire and inflamed the en-
thusiasm of the multitudes to whom He preached; how
in spite of awful discouragements. He succeeded in estab-
lishing the Kingdom of God in the hearts of some at least ;
and how ultimately He sacrificed Himself for the bene-
fit of mankind, are facts of which most of you here present
are no doubt aware. I shall not enter into the details of
His life and ministry, as my present business is simply with
the influence which He exercised on the world. It cannot
be denied that it was solely for His thorough devotion to
the cause of truth and the interests of suffering humanity
that He patiently endured all the privations and hardships
which came in His way, and met that fierce storm of per-
secution which His infuriated antagonists poured on His
devoted head. It was from no selfish impulse, from no
spirit of mistaken fanaticism that He bravely and cheer-
fully offered Himself to be crucified on the cross. He laid
down His life that God might be glorified. I have always
regarded the cross as a beautiful emblem of self-sacrifice
unto the glory of God, one which is calculated to quicken
the higher feelings and aspirations of the heart and to
purify the soul; and I believe there is not a heart, how
callous and hard soever it may be, that can look with
cold indifference on that grand and significant symbol.
Such honorable and disinterested self-sacrifice has pro-

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 269

duced, as might be anticipated, wonderful results ; Ihe noble
purpose of Christ's noble heart has been fully achieved,
as the world's history will testify. The vast moral in-
fluence of His life and death still lives in human society
and animates its movements.'"

■ IV. Conflicting Testimonies

I. Adverse Testimony — Steevens. — The work of
Christian missions and the lives of the missionaries and
their converts have been the object of criticism and of com-
mendation. The harmfulness of the testimony against mis-
sions often lies in its brevity. Thus in the late G. W.
Steevens' In India, the reader finds imbedded in a profusion
of details concerning education, salt, canals, the villager,
the 'Rajah, Sikh shrines, etc., etc., only these few lines
devoted to Christianity : " What else have we to count on
for the regeneration of India? Christianity? It has made
few converts and little enough improvement in the few;
is it not too exotic a religion to thrive in Indian soil?'"
These words and a reference to " the little Scotch mis-
sionary," who seems to chiefly enjoy his own sermons,
which are occasionally preached to a few Europeans gath-
ered in a drawing-room, suffice, in the opinion of this vi-
vacious newspaper correspondent, for the greatest factor
in the life of India to-day.

Townsend. — Wholly different is the estimate of the
work of missions by a careful student of world-conditions,
Mr. Meredith Townsend. For the missionaries he has lit-
tle but praise ; their methods he heartily despises. In his
Asia and Europe he discusses the difficulties of evangelr
izing India which, in his opinion, doom the enterprise tq
failure. Without making any reference to his discussion
of difficulties due to differences of Occidental and Hindu

^ Young, The Success of Christian Missions, pp. 91, 92,
2 Steevens, In India, p. 358.

270 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

minds, to differences of climate, race, and history, and
>vithout pausing to quote his amplification of the sugges-
tive thesis, " There is far too much fear of imperfect Chris-
itianity in the entire missionary organization," we quote
Mr. Maconachie's summary of his main criticism: "'The
greatest obstacle, however, to the rapid diffusion of Chris-
tianity in India is the method adopted to secure proselytes.'
Mr. Townsend laments the want of volunteers, though he
states that want in stronger terms than the facts warrant,
and the fewness of the missionaries, who should, he thinks,
be Indian, not Englishmen, especially when the latter at-
tempt ' to saturate Easterns with the West,' obtaining, if
successful, ' a hybrid caste, not quite European, not quite
Indian, with the originality killed out of them, with self-
reliance weakened, with all mental aspirations wrenched
violently in a direction which is not their own.' He de-
siderates, ' not a Free Church College teaching thousands
of Brahmans English, but an El Azhar for training native
missionaries through their own tongue and in their own
ways of thought exclusively — a college which should pro-
duce not baboos competent to answer examination papers
from Cambridge, but Christian fanatics, learned in the
Christianized learning of Asia, and ready to wander forth
to preach and teach and argue and, above all, to command,
as the missionaries of Islam do.' '" How far Townsend's
criticism is justified by facts and how deficient in insight
the reader can judge from considerations found on pre-
ceding pages.^

Other Criticisms. — A host of other objections to the
'work of the missionaries in India are of a kind anticipated
and answered by David Bogue in an address delivered be-
fore the London Missionary Society in 1795. Perhaps the
commonest cause of criticism is the one numbered " 9 " in
his list, " What right have we to interfere with the re-

^ Church Missionary Intelligencer, February, 1903, p. 95.
' §ee Tovvnscnd, Asia and Europe, especially pp. 63-81.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 2/1

ligion of Other nations?" In a recent sermon preached
by Bishop Welldon, Metropolitan of Calcutta, occurs a con-
cise reply to that old argument. " There was a time when
the inhabitants of Great Britain were in civilization hardly
superior to the nations which the Church is now essaying
to evangelize. But Christianity came to Great Britain;
. . . it worked great changes in the course of cen-
turies; it became fruitful in justice, liberty, and benevo-
lence; . . . and in my heart I confess that I have
never heard any argument which is urged against the ef-
fort of the Christian Church to convert by fair and gen-
erous means the Mohammedan or heathen regions of the
;arth at the present day, but it might have been urged, and
I dare say it was urged, fifteen centuries ago, against the
primitive, remote, and pagan people who were then called
Britons."^ If a more detailed answer to this objection is
desired the reader may find it, if he will re-read Chapter
IV. of the present volume.

Critics Characterised. — Critics of Indian missions were
thus characterized by Sir A. Mackenzie, C. S. I., Chief
Commissioner of Central Provinces, in an address given
at Jubbulpore in 1888 : " In my experience, those who dep-
recate mission work are generally people who know noth-
ing, and care to know nothing, about it. Ignorance is the
distinguishing characteristic of the ordinary despiser of
missions, at home and abroad. There are no doubt, how-
ever, critics who take more pains and still arrive at un-
favorable conclusions. We must not refuse to listen when
these men point out what may be weak spots in our armor.
'Fas est ah hoste doceri — and if we may learn from our
enemies, we may certainly do so from those who style
themselves our friends. For the rest, however, I detect
in most of the criticisms of these so-called candid friends
— candor, by the way, is generally a synonym for caustic
^- 1 detect, I say, in most of them a one-sidedness of view
■y' Missionary Rfview of the World, May, 1901, p. 400.

272 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

and a certain absence of sympathetic touch, which would,
in any other sphere of thought, stamp them as quite un-
fit for the critical function."^

2. Commendations — Keshab Chander Sen. — As in
the case of criticisms, so in presenting commendations a
very few are selected as types of scores of similar import.
And first let us hear what natives say of the work of the
missionaries. In the newspapers of Calcutta an address
of eminent non-Christians of that city to the Metropolitan
and Bishops assembled in the Town Hall was recently
printed. Here is a quotation: "In the British conquest
of India we mark the direct hand of a loving and saving
Providence. You have already achieved what millions of
England's armed men, as well as its network of railways
and telegraphs, its trade and commerce, and a thousand
other agencies for furthering the material prosperity of
the country, could never have done. You are trying to win
the heart of India by infusing into it the Gospel of love
and good will. The Bible which you have brought to the
country is an inestimable boon, and the sweet and sacred
name of your beloved Master, which has already revolu-
tionized the world, is unto us a benefaction, the true value
of which we can not yet adequately conceive. Whether
India will accept any of the many forms of Christianity,
or whether she will be incorporated with any of the sects
of Christendom, appears to us very doubtful ; but of this
there is no doubt, that our country can not be without
Christ. He has become a necessity unto us — a greater
necessity than food and raiment. Christ Jesus, whose
name you have had the honor of introducing to us, has
already caught hold of the country, and no power can
snatch India away from His sacred hands. India is now
Christ's, and Christ is India's, so deeply has He entered
into her life-blood.""

^ Young, The Success of Christian Missions^ p. 147.

^ CImrch Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1901, p. 899.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES '273'

Prince Singh. — Another native of India, Prince Har-
nam Singh, said in London in 1887: " There are many who
put the question. What good are missionaries doing in
India? I say without any hesitation, that had it not been
for the knowledge that had been imparted by these humble,
unpretending men, not English laws and English science,
no, nor British arms, would have effected such changes
in the social condition as are evident to all observing men
in these days. Do we look back to the work done by such
eminent men as our most distinguished statesmen. Lord
Dalhousie, Lord Canning, Lord Lawrence, Lord Ripon,
or even the present grand representative in India, Lord
Dufferin, for the new light that has been shed over that
dark continent ? No ! We look back to the time when
such men as Marshman and Carey and pre-eminently that!
great and learned man, that devoted servant of Christ, Dr.
Duff, first introduced that mysterious little volume, the
Word of God, which shows a man the secrets of his own
heart and tells him how he can be reconciled to God, as
no other book does."^

Sir W. 'M. Young. — In an address delivered in March,
1903, in London, by Sir W. Mackworth Young, ex-Lieu-
tenant-Governor of the Punjab, occur these striking
words : " As a business man speaking to business men I am
prepared to say that the work which has been done by
missionary agency in India exceeds in importance all that
has been done — and much has been done — by the Brit-
ish Government since its commencement. Let me take the
province which I know best. I ask myself what has been
the most potent influence which has been working among
the people since annexation fifty-four years ago, and to
that question I feel there is but one answer — Christian-
ity, as set forth in the lives and teachings of Christian
missionaries. I do not underestimate the forces which
have been brought to bear on the races in the Punjab by

^ Young, Tlic Success of Christian Missions, p. 133,

274 INDIA AND CIIKISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

our beneficent rule, by British justice and enlightenment ;
but I am convinced that the effect on native character pro-
duced by the self-denying labors of the missionaries is far
greater. The Punjab bears on its historic roll the names
of many Christian statesmen who have honored God by
their lives and endeared themselves to the people by their
faithful work; but I venture to say that if they could speak
to us from the great unseen, there is not one of them who
would not proclaim that the work done by men like French,
Clark, Newton, and Forman, who went in and out among
the people for a whole generation or more, and who
preached by their lives the nobility of self-sacrifice and the
lesson of love to God and man, is a higher and nobler work
and more far-reaching in its consequences."'

A Cloud of Witnesses. — Of a host of other witnesses
who have spent years in India and who know the mission-
aries and their converts well, only one more is selected,
Lord Northbrook, a former Viceroy and Governor-General
of India, who said at the London Centenary Conference
of 1888: "You all know that Sir WilHam Muir, when
Governor of the Northwest Provinces, openly showed
his support of mission work; and Sir Charles Aitchison,
who occupied the post of Lieutenant-General of the
Punjab, and who is now one of the members of the
Viceroy's Council, has always been an active supporter of
missionary work. Then there are Sir Richard Temple,
Sir Richard Thompson, Sir Charles Bernard, Henry C.
Tucker, and others. Then there is the almost equally dis-
tinguished brother of Lord Lawrence, Henry Lawrence.
Then there were Herbert Edwardes, Reynell Taylor,
Henry Havelock, and, in fact, nearly all the men who
came forward at the time of the Mutiny, and through
whose exertions the British Empire in India was pre-
served. Not one of them shrank upon any occasion from

'-Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the
East^ 1^2-1903, p. 182.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 275

Mpporting the cause of missions in India. I say this for
two reasons. I say it, first, because when you are told
that these missionary societies are nonsense, supported by
a pack of old women getting together, then you may point
to these men, the best statesmen and the best soldiers of
India, who have, by their lives, and on every occasion
on which they could, supported mission work. And I say
it besides, because I wish to point out that these men are
the men in whom, more than any others, the natives of
India, whether Christians or not, had the greatest con-
fidence."'

3. "Judge Ye." — The question of the value of Christian
missions in India can not be decided from a few quotations
pro and con. Yet any fair-minded reader could easily de-
cide for himself, if the records and character of the various
critics and defenders of missions were known. Any one
can see that flitting newspaper correspondents should not
be regarded as authorities for or against a cause about
which they take no pains to learn, or concerning which they
have violent prejudices. It would seem that men of world-
wide fame, who in a secular capacity have known these
people and whose Christian character is unquestioned,
should be regarded as more competent to testify than those
of the former class. Such a witness as Meredith Townsend
is in a distinct category, though it would be easy to show
the incorrectness of many of the criticisms of missions in
his Asia and Europe.' Yet the inexpert could anticipate
the probable judgments of a man who in discussing the
difficulties of India's evangelization boasts that his beliefs
on this subject are " based on conversations with Brah-
mans of great acuteness, continued through a period of

'■Report of the Centenary Conference, London, 1888, vol. i., p. I9i-
' His statement as to the male missionary force — see p. 75 — which
is small enough at best, is just about half the real number, if he refers
to the date of the imprint of his book, 1901. One man at least who is
not a society secretary would willingly accept his challenge on the bottom
of page 77.

^•j6 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

years, but with Brahmans exclusively.'" One would hard-
ly go to Guide for a true estimate of Caponsacchi or ex-
pect favorable opinions of Cromwell's Ironsides from the
Cavaliers.

V. Christian Opportunity in India

1. " Oportunitie" no " Importunitie." — George Putten-
ham quaintly remarks, " Euery thing hath his season,
which is called Oportunitie, and the vnfitnesse or vnde-
cency of the time is called Importunitie."^ The survey
of the Indian situation surely bears one out in the asser-
tion that this is the time of golden opportunity, and that
there is nothing to render the enlargement of the work in-
opportune. Recapitulating, the following are some of the
elements which constitute this period a crisis and a cor-
responding opportunity, if the Christian Church will awake
to the greatness of its responsibility and privilege.

2. Physical Factors. — The Empire is favorably located
for sustaining a population far more vast than it has at
present even. " India possesses all the needful climates.
Her soil is rich. Much of it is still virgin soil, despite the
many millions of people. Take the Presidency of Madras
as an example. The arable area in that one Presidency
is 72,858,000 acres; but the portion which is actually cul-
tivated is only 26,580,000. The rest is uncultivated land.
Of the land under cultivation, only twenty per cent, is ir-
rigated. The unirrigated and dry land is eighty per cent.
Of the latter, a very large part consists of the worst of
soils. The tillage on these soils is also very poor. Our
native plow stirs, but does not overturn the soil, and sel-
dom penetrates to a greater depth than three inches.
There is also no such thing as after-cultivation, or hoeing.
As to our irrigated land, while it is under crops, it re-

^ Townsend, Asia and Europe, pp. &7j 68.

' Puttenham, The Art of English Poesie, p. 223.

RESULTS AND OPPOEtUNJTIES 2^7

ceives very little attention beyond watering and weed-
ing." As irrigation canals are constantly being increased
and as the model farms and institutions for teaching farm-
ing gain in popularity and efficiency, we may confidently
expect greater populations in the future than in the past.
While famines and plagues have made the percentage of
increase in population exceptionally small during the last
decade, the fact that over seven millions, or one-tenth
the population of the United States, were added to its;
wealth of life, writes opportunity in large letters.

Communication. — India differs from Africa or China
in point of easy accessibility. All the important lines of
Oriental steamers touch at Indian ports, landing Amer-
ican missionaries after less than a month's voyage. Once
ashore, great arteries of railway, 25,373 miles in length,
stretch out to every part of the Empire; while from the
railways 171,384 miles of road, more than one-fourth of
which are metaled, connect them with remote hamlets.
Dak bungalows, or travelers' rest houses, stand ready to
receive the missionary, if he does not prefer the easily
portable tent. If accessibility is an element of opportu-
nity, no non-Christian land except Japan can compare with
India.

3. Political Aids. — In the Providence of God this next
to the most populous empire of the world is under the rule
of a Protestant Emperor, Britain's Christian King. This
insures protection to the missionary and his convert; it
enacts humane laws and furthers the physical and mental
well-being of nearly 300,000,000 of our fellow-men; it en-
courages the lowest, who through its own and the mis-
sionary's efforts have become fitted to become factors in
India's higher life, to occupy positions of influence in the
nation, so that the call from the nets is a summons to
thrones, as it was to the first disciples centuries ago. Even
that exceedingly difficult problem of most Mohammedan

' Hurst, Indika, pp. 553, 5S4.

278 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

lands, the protection and use of converts from that fanat-
ical faith, is solved in India, thanks to Christian rule. If
the arm of flesh is a factor in opportunity, this Empire is
the realm of favoring circumstance.

4. Religious Need. — The demonstrated need of a people
constitutes an appealing opportunity. A deputation sent
out to India and Ceylon in 1901 by America's oldest for-
eign missionary society, the American Board, had this to
say on their return : " We seized every opportunity to in-
vestigate the religions of those countries and to study the
public and private life they produce. They have utterly
failed to inspire the people to anything that is uplifting
and ennobling. Three thousand and more years of Hin-
duism have fully demonstrated its lack of ability to hold
a mighty race from sinking lower and lower in ignorance
and immorality. This condition is observed by the intel-
ligent Hindus, who are free to confess that India's only
hope is in the Christian religion. It is impossible for the
foreigner to appreciate or understand the utter lack of
unity or co-operation among the native peoples of India.
With their more than one hundred languages and races,
with their minute subdivision into thousands of castes,
with their perfect chaos of nature religions and diversity of
cults, there seems to be no ground on which this great and
really capable people can meet or hold fellowship, unless
Christianity can come in with its one God, its one human
fraternity, its one tongue, and its one blessed hope for all,
high and low, rich or poor, male and female. And this
one meeting-place and one helpful bond of fellowship our
missionaries are presenting and establishing. Hinduism
confesses itself powerless, and, in its helplessness, turns
to the West, from which the light of Christian civiliza-
tion sheds its inspiring rays upon caste-bound, helpless
India."' Just as Christendom speedily listened to the cry

' Report of the Deputation Sent by the American Board to India and
Ceylon in 1901, pp. 52, 53.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 279

of the famishing and plague-stricken, so that funds con-
tributed in America were flashed beneath the seas and
were distributed the following day in India's remote vil-
lages, so the Christian Church should grasp the oppor-
tunity expressing itself in this unconscious, it may be, but
nevertheless " exceeding bitter cry."

5. Opportunity's Prophets. — The success vouchsafed
to the work of the past is a call for further and more vig-
orous onset. Not to respond will be to precipitate " the
vnfitnesse or vndecency of the time [which] is called
Importunitie." One of Meredith Townsend's indictments
against Indian missions is this : " The Reformed Churches
of Europe and America have devoted themselves to the
old object with some zeal and commendable perseverance,
but they have entirely failed to secure volunteers for the
work,"' and then he proceeds to lash the Church for
having only a beggarly contingent of " about 700 men " in
their " proselyting service " for mighty India. The uncon-
scious reply of the Madras Conference to this innuendo is
found in this resolution : " Accepting it as a principle
that India must ultimately be brought to Christ by its own
sons and daughters, and bearing in mind that the first and
greatest need of the fields which we represent is a large
increase in the number of native workers, both paid and
voluntary, the Conference yet expresses its strong convic-
tion that the number of foreign missionaries set apart for
preaching the Gospel in the vernaculars of the people is
both wholly inadequate to the needs of the work and
unworthy of the resources of the Christian Church. In
forming this conviction, the Conference has before it the
facts, (i) that of the foreign missionaries now on the
field, a large number are engaged in educational and insti-
tutional work; (2) that missionaries placed in charge of
stations or districts and considered as set apart for evan-
gelistic work have their time so greatly occupied in the

^ Townsend, Asia and Europe, p. 74.

28o INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

work of organizing and administration, arising from the
success of past labor, that but a small part of their atten-
tion can be given to the work of teaching and preaching
the Gospel in the vernactilars. When these reductions
are made, it is evident that the number of foreign mission-
aries whose time is chiefly given to this duty is deplorably
small. This Conference would urge that every missionary
society should strenuously seek to accomplish the evan-
gelization of its field in this generation, this being under-
stood to mean the thorough and systematic preaching of
the Gospel in the language of the people in every place
within that period."^

A John the Baptist. — The first society to take aggres-
sive action along the line of this prophetic call is that of
the United Presbyterian Church of North America. At
a meeting of that mission held at Sialkot, six weeks before
the Madras Conference convened, it was voted, among
other provisions: " (IV). That at the present rate of
progress we could not reasonably expect the people of
our field generally to become Christians within a period
of less than two or three centuries, during which time
many generations of men and women would have passed
into eternity. (V). That we believe it to be the duty of our
Church to secure the evangelization of this field within the
period of a single generation — that is, so to bring the
essential principles of the Gospel to the attention of all
classes in that time, that no one of mature understanding
could say that he was not acquainted with the way of ever-
lasting life. (VI). In order to do this it is our firm con-
viction that besides enough missionaries to properly man
our educational and other institutions and supply the
places of persons home on furlough, we should have at
least one male missionary and one lady evangelistic mis-
sionary for every 50,000 of the people within our
bounds, together with a manifold larger force of native

' Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. 75, 76.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 2&1

pastors and evangelists to work with them."^ In pur-
suance of this resolve, the Board has called home from
India one of the strongest of the younger mission-
aries and an energetic campaign is being prosecuted. The
action of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian
Church authorizing this step follows : " The appeal of
foreign missionary associations in India and Egypt for a
definite increase in missionary forces should be regarded
as evidence of God's awakening of the Church to a clear
apprehension of her missionary obligations, and with the
aim of reaching this ideal presented by missionaries in
the field, and speedily evangelizing the lands especially
entrusted to our Church, the Board is instructed to begin
a campaign of interest and effort whereby through indi-
viduals and congregations the support of new missionaries
and their work may be secured without endangering or
weakening the support of present work.''

6. Failure to Hear. — What the failure to hear this
voice of opportunity, which is manifestly the voice of
God, means to the Church and to the field, is intimated by
India's great civilian, the late Sir William Hunter, who
in a paper read before the Indian Section of the Society
of Arts in London, in 1888, uttered these pregnant words :
" It is not permitted to a lecturer here to speak as the
advocate of any creed. But on this, as on every platform
in England, it is allowed to a man to speak as an English-
man, and, speaking as an Englishman, I declare my con-
viction that English missionary enterprise is the highest
modern expression of the world-wide national life of our
race. I regard it as the spiritual complement of England's
instinct for colonial expansion and imperial rule. And I
believe that any falling off in England's missionary efforts
will be a sure sign of swiftly coming national decay. "^

> Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the United
Presbyterian Church of North America, 1903, pp. 40, 41.
2 Young, Success of Christian Missions, p. 132.

282 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

Nor is America debarred from a similar responsibility;
nay, it is her chief outlet for world-conquering ambitions.
Says the Bishop of Newcastle : " So far has America
realized the need of winning India to Christ that a hun-
dred years hence, if the last thirty years' proportion con-
tinue, India will owe its Christianity more to America
than to Great Britain and Ireland combined." To which
Dr. Jones adds : " While all this means a great achieve-
ment, it means also, and pre-eminently, a stirring opportu-
nity. The widest door of opportunity is open to America
among her antipodes in that historic land. Christian
effort can nowhere else find heartier welcome or results
more encouraging and telling in the great gathering of
Eastern nations into the Kingdom of our Lord."'
I 7. Reenforcements. — The last word in this all too mea-
ger presentation of a worthy field should be from the
workers themselves. From the Appeal to the Home
Churches of the Madras Conference of 1902, we quote the
following paragraphs which owe much to the advocacy
and object-lesson of the United Presbyterian Mission:
"Although modern missionaries have been at work in India
for more than a century, the fact remains that the number
of foreign missionaries at present engaged in the work in
these lands is not only wholly inadequate to enable them
to avail themselves of the opportunities that press upon
them, but also far below what the resources of the Chris-
tian Church can well afford to maintain. Even if the
clear and intelligible statement of the Gospel message to
each inhabitant were all that we aimed at, yet the body of
foreign missionaries and native preachers at present at
work would be deplorably inadequate, as it will suffice for
the regular visitation of only a small proportion of the
inhabitants, and the vast majority of villages are not reg-
ularly visited at all. We fully recognize that the greatest
part of this work of district evangelization must be done,

'Jones, India's Problem, pp. 330, 331.

RESULTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 283

not by foreigners, but by members of the Indian Christian
Church. But to train these Indian Christian workers and
to supervise and direct their work, there will for many
years to come be required a considerable number of for-
eign missionaries. It is thought to be anything but an
extravagant estimate of the needs of the country, if we
ask that there be one male and one female missionary for
every 50,000 of the population, and this would mean the
quadrupling of our present numbers. It is the opinion of
sober, thoughtful and zealous men that, in order to carry
on thoroughly the work now in hand and to enter the
most obviously open doors which God has set before this
Church in India, the missionary staff of the country should
be at least doubled within the next ten years.

Kind of Workers Needed. — " It is not simply numbers
that are required. The work to be done is intensive as
well as extensive. The quality of the workers sent out is
of even more importance than the numbers. As there is
need of a large diversity of gifts, we appeal to those of the
most highly educated classes of our native lands who have
consecrated their lives to the obedience of Christ to con-
sider whether there is not a call to many of them to dedi-
cate their talents, which are largely the heritage of seven-
teen centuries of Christian privilege and enlightenment,
to the uplifting of their brothers and sisters in foreign
lands, who have had fewer advantages. We would appeal
to ministers and educationists and other men of scholar-
ship, to doctors and nurses, to writers and journalists, to
men of organizing power and business experience, and to
Christian ladies and gentlemen, possessed of private pecu-
niary resources, to ask themselves whether they can not
hear a call of God to this work. At the same time every
worker endued with the spirit of love, of power, and of a
sound mind, and possessing the qualities that go to make
the successful minister at home, will find here abundant
scope for the exercise of all his gifts.

284 INDIA AND CHRISTIAN OPPORTUNITY

India's Crisis. — "We are well aware that the above
facts apply not only to work in India but to work in most
if not all parts of the mission field. But we feel that there
is a special urgency in this appeal in the case of India,
Burma, and Ceylon: (i) Because of the abundant and
unique facilities for work throughout these great depend-
encies of the British Crown, and the large measure in
which their people are absorbing Western ideas. (2)
Because India, now awaking from the sleep of centuries,
is in its most plastic and formative condition, so that the
impressions, good or ill, which it receives in these present
fateful years, are likely to affect its future for centuries to
come. (3) Because this critical time is rapidly passing.
Many forms of worldliness, and many motives at variance
with the Spirit of Christ are competing for the dominion
of the Indian mind and heart, and loss of the present
opportunity may multiply our difficulties and enfeeble and
hamper our work in the coming decades.

''' For Christ's Sake." — " In the name of Christ, our
Common Lord, for the sake of those who, lacking Him,
are as sheep without a shepherd, we ask you to listen to
our appeal. You, under God, have sent us forth to India.
We count it a privilege to give our lives to this land. For
Christ's sake and the Gospel's, strengthen our hands, and
enable us to press on towards the goal of our great calling,
when the Kingdom of the World shall become the King-
dom of the Lord and of His Christ."'

' Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. 204-207.

Appendix A— Annotated Bibliography

The works mentioned below constitute only an Inappreciable part of
the extensive literature on India in English. Those have been choseu
which are most commonly found in American libraries, and for that reason
the proportion of works published in Europe is comparatively small. Very
few periodicals have been entered in this list, and of these only two have
been referred to for specific suggestions for different ' chapters. The
Missionary Review of the World is the one most widely found in libraries,
and hence a large number of articles have been suggested from that source.

The heavy-faced type is used to indicate authors, and also the chapters
in the text-book, which sections of the volume under consideration and
quoted thereafter illustrate. In most cases the names of authors or works
are preceded by an initial letter. These suggest the value of the material
recommended, as far as authorship is a criterion. The several letters have
the following values:

m Indicates Indian missionary au- t marks books written by travelers

thorship. in India.

n indicates native authorship. t indicates that book was in part

o indicates that the author Is an the outgrowth of missionary visl-

offlcial of a missionary society. tation.

r indicates prolonged residence of * indicates unusual value of the

the author in India. work so marked.

*Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift. This periodical Is invaluable for every
phase of work in India. Consult Inhalt and Sachregister, noting es-
pecially those articles in the Missionsrundschau section and the
biographies of Indian workers In the Beiblatt section.

«»Bailey, W, C. The Lepers of our Indian Empire. 1891. Ulustrating-
Ch. VI.: throughout, for leper work.

Barnes, I. H. Behind the Pardah: The Story of C. B. Z. M. S. Work in
India. 1897. Illustrating Chs. III., VI,: throughout, for the condition
of women and pictures of work for them.

inn Barrows, J. H., editor. The World's Parlia ent of Eeligions. 2 vols.
1893. Illustrating Ch. IV.: pp. 316-339 (Hinduism); pp. 968-978 (Vive-
kananda on Hinduism); pp. 345-351, 1226-1229 (Brama Samaj); pp.
767-779 (social reform); pp. 898-920; (Parsees); pp. 1083-1092 (religious
debt to Asia, Mozoomdar) ; pp. 1222-1226 (Jains); For Ch. VI,: pp.
456-460 (concessions to native Ideas) ; pp. 1269-1276 (Christian and Hindu
ideas). For Ch. VIII.: pp. 1172-1178 (religions outlook).

*Barth, A. The Religions of India. 1882. Illustrating Ch, 11.: ch. i. (Vedic
religions) ; ch. 11. (Brahmanlsm) ; ch. ill. (Buddhism) ; ch. iv. (Jain-
ism). For Ch. IV. (modern Hinduism).

Beach, H. P. A Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions. 2 vols. 1901-
1903. Illustrating Ch. VIII. : especially by Its missionary maps, vol.
II., plates 10-12.

Bettany, G. T. The World's Religions. 1891. Illustrating Ch. IV.: pp.
84-99 (religion of aborigines) ; pp. 176-213 (Vedic religion and Brah-
manism); pp. 255-292 (Buddha and his doctrines); pp. 231-254 (modern
Hinduism); pp. 302-310 (Burmese Buddhism); pp. 337-3-2 ( Jainism) ;
pp. 365-370 (modern Parseelsm),

Bliss, E. M., editor. The Encyclopaedia of Missions. 2 vols. 1891. Illus-
trating Ch. IV.: articles Hinduism, Mohammedanism, For Ch. V.:
article India.

385

286 APPENDIX A

>»Bose, R, C. Brahmoism, or History of Eeformed Hinduism. Illuatrating

Chs. IV. and VII.; throughout.
BBose, R. C. Hindu Philosophy Popularly Examined. 1884. Illustrating Ch.

II.: chs. l.-lv. For Ch. VII.: chs. x.-xil. and supplement (modern

schools of philosophy).
nBose, R. C. The Hindus as They Are. 2d ed., 1883. Illustrating Ch. III.:

ch. i. (Hindu household); ch. ill. (Hindu schoolboy); chs. iv., v., xtII.-

xix., xxli., xxlil. (girls, women, and married life); ch. xill. (caste);

ch. xiv. (Brahmans). For Ch. IV. : chs. vi.-xii. (religious festivals);

ch. XX. (death and funeral ceremonies).

* Brown, W. History of the Propagation of Christianity among the

Heathen Since the Eeformation. 3d ed. 3 vols. 1854, lUustrating
Ch. v.: vol. 1., pp. 133-176 (Danish-Halle workers); vol. ii., pp. 327-
366 (Church Missionary Society); pp. 474-493 (General Assembly
Church of Scotland); pp. 494-503 (Free Church of Scotland); vol. 111.,
pp. 1-12 (American Board); pp. 246-308 (Baptist Missionary Union);
pp. 323-370 (general summary).

mButler, W, The Land of the Vedas. 1894. Illustrating Ch. II.: chs.
iv.-viii. (Sepoy Mutiny). For Ch, III.: ch. 1. (people, caste); ch. Ix.
(woman),

*Di Carmichael, A. "Wilson-. Things as They Are: Mission Work in South
India, 1903. Illustrating Ch, I.: throughout, for South Indian scenery.
For Ch. III.: the home life of lower classes. For Ch. IV.: see espe-
cially chs. yxl., xxiv. For Ch. VI,: throughout gives unexcelled ac-
coants of work for women among lower classes. For Ch. VII. : par-
ticularly chs. xiv.-xvl. For Ch. VIII.: pp. 41-44, chs. iviii., xxxi.,
xxxii.

m Chamberlain, J. In the Tiger Jungle. 1896. Illustrating Ch. VI.: ch. v.
(power of song) ; ch. vi. (tracts) ; chs. viii.-xi. (touring) ; chs. vii.,
xli., xlii. (work at a station). For Ch, VII.: chs. xxl., xxli. (opposi-
tion and persecution of converts). For Ch. VIII.: ch. xxiil. (triumph
of Christianity).

m Chamberlain, J. The Cobra's Den. 1900. Illustrating Ch, IV.: che. x.,
xl. For Ch, VI,: chs. Iv., ix. (medical work); chs. 111., vl., vlii.
(Itinerating and bookselling). For Ch. VIII.: ch. xlx. (Hindu Chris-
tians' contributions).

'Children of India, Written for the Children of England. No date. Illus-
trating Ch. rv. : Parts ill., Iv. (gods, festivals, religions).

* Church Missionary Intelligencer. Its fifty-four volumes contain a vast

number of authoritative articles on every phase of India and Its
missions.

mClark, R, The Punjab and Sindh Missions of the Church Missionary Society.
1885. Illustrating Ch. III.: ch. v. (people of Punjab and Sindh). For
Ch. VI.: good throughout. For Ch, VII,: ch. xvi. (native church coun-
cil) ; ch. xvli. (political aspects of missions) ; ch. xxi. (difficulties and
dangers).

mClough, E. R. While Sewing Sandals: Tales of a Telngu Pariah Trfte.
1899. Illustrating Chs. IV,, VI,: throughout, for the way In which con-
verts come through local traditions and religions to Christianity.

raClough, J. E, From Darkness to Light: the Story of a Telugu Convert.
1882. Illustrating Ch, VI.: (excellent for Southeastern India).

«'Cobb, H. N. Far Hence. A Budget of Letters from Our Mission Fields In
Asia, 1893. Illustrating Chs. V. and VI.: chs. Iv.-xvl. (work in Re-
formed Church of America's Missions).

nCoopooswamey. E very-day Life In South India. An Autobiography. 18S5.
Illustrating Ch. III.: good for native convert's life throughout. For Ch.
rv.: chs. v., vl., vlii. For Ch, VI.: ch. xi. (woman's work); ch. ix.
(mission schools); ch. xlv. (mission life); ch. xvl. (receiving bap-
tism); ch. xlx. (unsatisfactory converts).

rCust, R. N. Pictures of Indian Life. 1881. Illustrating Ch. III.: ch. vl.
(village); ch. xli. (the family); ch. xx. (caste); ch. ixlll. (women).
For Ch. IV.: ch. xxli.

•Davids, T. "W. Rhys-. Buddhism. 1894. Illustrating Ch. II.: chs. II.,
iii. (Buddha's life); ch. ix. (spread of Buddhism).

■nDenning, M. B. Mosaics from India. 1902. Illustrating Ch. I,: ch. xl.

APPENDIX A ^287

(famine); cha. 11., vll., xlll. (parts of India). For (Jh. HI.! chs. t1.,
vili.-x. (girls and women) : ch. li. (Government),; ch. xv. (caste). For
Cli, IV. : cli. xvili. (gods and religion) ; ch. xii. (pilgrimages and holy
places). For Ch. Vni.: ch. 111. (missions In India); ch. v. (Ramabal
and her widows).

*Dennis, J. S. Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions. Being a Conspectus
of the Achievements and Results of Evangelical Missions in All Lands
at the Close of the Nineteenth Century. 1902. Illustrating Chs. VI. and
VIII. : its tables of every form of missionary activity are unsurpassed in
their details.

Dennis, J. S. Foreign Missions after a Century. 1893. Illustrating Ch.
VIII.: pp. 96-105 (appeal based on conditions in 1893).

•"Dubois, J. A. Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies. 2 vols. 1897.
Illustrating Chs. III., IV.; throughout, but especially In Part I.

•Dutt, K. 0. Ancient India, 2000 B. C. — 200 A. D. 1893. Illustrating Chs.
II. and IV. : throughout.

"Dyer, H. S. Pandita Ramabai. 1900. Illustrating Chs. HI., VI., VIII.:
throughout for woman's and philanthropic work.

*Bast and the West (The). Illustrating Ch. ni.: April, 1903, pp. 121-133
(moral tone of India). For Ch. IV.; April, 1903, pp. 148-155 (reform of
Mohammedan cduciition) ; pp. 171-181 (Anglo-Indian novelists and
Hinduism) ; July, 1903, pp. 306-316 (place of All in Eastern religious
thought). For Ch. VI.: April, 1903, pp. 103-205 (missionary work and
native education). For Gh. VII.: April. 1903, pp. 206-215 (men and
money); July, 1903, pp. 330-337 (Dr. Oidfield's criticisms of Indian
missions). For Ch. VIII.; July, 1903, pp. 254-263 (attitude.of educated
Hindus toward Christianity).

"Ecumenical Missionary Conference, New York, 1900. 2 vols. 1900. Illus-
trating Cli. VI. ; see index, references under India. For Ch, VIII. : vol.
I., ch. xxl. (general survey).

*Elphinstone, M. The History of India. 1874. Illustrating Ch. II.!
throughout, for Hindu and Mohammedan periods.

Encyclopaedias, General. Consult the articles Brahmanism, Buddhism,
Hinduism, India, Jalnlsm, Mohammedanism, Parsees, Sikhs, etc. The
tenth edition of the Britannica is particularly good on recent events
and conditions.

Fitchett, W. H. The Tale of the Great Mutiny. 1901. Ulustrating Ch. IV.:
for mutiny only.

'Frazer, R. W. British India. 1897. Illustrating Ch. V, ; throughout, espe-
cially for government, the mutiny (ch. xlv.), and moral and material
progress (ch. xvi. ).

■"Frost, A. G, By Waysides in India. 1902. Illustrating Ch. VI. : through-
out, for woman's work.

♦mFuUer, Mrs. M. B. The Wronps of Indian Womanhood. 1900. Illustra-
ting Ch. III. ; throughout, for various classes of women. For Ch, VI. :
chs. ivi.-xviil. (woman's work).

Garhe, B. The Philosophy of Ancient India. 1897. Illustrating Ch. II.:
throughout, especially pp. 1-31.

Giles, H. A. Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms. No date. Illustrating
Ch, n. : good for Buddhist India.

*n Gordon, A. Our Indian Missions, 1855-1885. 1888. Illustrating Ch. II.;
ch. ix. (Sepoy Mutiny). For Chs. VI.-VIII. ; throughout, for United
Presbyterians of the United States.

n Grant, W. D., editor. Christendom Anno Domini MDCCCCI. 2 T0I3.
1902. niustrating Chs. v., VI.; vol. i., pp. 218-242.

♦ Grundomann, R, Burkhardt's Kleine MissIons-BIMIothek. 4 vols. 1876-
1881. Illustrating Ch. n.; vol. Hi., pp. 15-45. For Ch. IV.: pp. 45-55.
For Ch. V,: pp. 55-71 (to beginning of the 19th century). For Chs.
"VI.-VIII.: pp. 81-340 (work by provinces and states).

t Guinness, L. E. Across India at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century. 1898.
Illustrating Ch. IV.; ch. ill. (Parsees); eh. xiil. (Neo-Hinduism). For
Ch. VI.; throughout.

Oundert, H. Die evangelisehe Mission, ihre Lilnder, Volker und Arbeiten.
Drltte Auflage. 1894. Illustrating Chs, V., VI. : pp. 223-297 (summary
of work by provinces and states).

288 APPENDIX A

>,

"Hartand, B. M. Daughters of Darkness in Sunny India. 1903. Illustrat-
ing Chs. III. and VI. : throughout, especially the sufferings of women
In South India.

[Harrison, J. W.] A. Mackay Ruthqulst. 1893. Illustrating Oh. VI.:
throughout, for woman's work especially among Gonds.

•Haug, M. Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the
Parsls. 2d ed. 1878. Illustrating Ch. IV.: throughout.

"History of Christianity in India, with Its Prospects. 1895. Illustrating
Ch. V. : throughout. For Ch. VIII. : pp. 123-139.

•Hodder, E. Conquests of the Cross. A Record of Missionary Work
Throughout the World. 3 vols. 1890. Illustrating Chs. V., VI.: con-
sult Index in vol. ill., under India.

mHoloomh, H. H. Men of Might in India Missions. 1901. Illustrating Ch.
v.; chs. 1. and ix. especially.

Hope, A. R. The Story of the Indian Mutiny. 1896. Illustrating Ch. IV.:
throughout.

•Hopkins, E. W. The Religions of India. 1895. Illustrating Chs. I. and
III.: ch.il. ForCh. II. : chs. iil.-XTi. ForCh. IV.: chs. xvii, xvill.

mllopkins, S. Armstrong-. Within the Purdah. 1898. Ulustrating Ch. III.:
Books 1. and 11. (interiors and the life of women of higher classes).
For Ch, VI. : Books i. and 11. (medical work among higher classes) ; pp.
238-247 (the more general medical work).

Home, C. R. The Story of the L[ondon] M[issionary] S[ociety]. 1795-1895.
1895. Illustrating Ch. V.: ch. iv. (early work); ch. x. (later work).

» Hough, J. The History of Christianity in India from the Commencement
of the Christian Era. 2 vols. 1839. Illustrating Ch. n.: vol. 1., pp.
4-29. For Ch. V.: pp. 30-68 (introduction of Christianity); pp. 69-88
(Nestorlanism); pp. 89-117 (Islam and Christianity); pp. 158-211 (Xa-
vier) ; pp. 212-237 (Inquisition) ; vol. 1., books ill., iv. (Archbishop
Menezes).

•rHunter, W. W. A Brief History of the Indian Peoples. 22nd ed. 1897.
Illustrating Ch. I.: ch. 1. For Ch. II.: chs. iii.-xvi. For Ch. HI.:
ch. 11. For Ch. IV.: ch. v. (Buddhism); ch. viii. (Hinduism).

tiHunter, W. W. The Indian Empire. 1892. 3rd ed. Illustrating C!h. I. :
ch. 1. (geography) ; ch. xxi. (mines and minerals) ; ch. sxlii. (meteor-
ology, botany, zoology): ch. xxv. (vital statistics). For Ch. II.: chs.
lii.-xv. (history from antiquity to present time). For Ch. III.: ch. ii.
(peoples); ch. xvii. (agriculture); chs. xix., xx. (commerce and trade,
arts and manufactures); ch. xvi. (British administration). For Ch.
IV.: pp. 257-278 (Hinduism in the making); pp. 205-208 (Jains); for
Buddhism, consult subheads of Buddhism in index. For Ch. V.: ch. ix.

t Hurst, J. F. Indlka. 1891. Illustrating Ch. I.; chs. vii., viil<; ch. Iviil..
(famines). For Ch. II.: ch. vi. For Ch. III.: ch. xi. (wild tribes);
ch. ix., Ixxxvi. (government); chs. lix., Ix. (Indian industries and pov-
erty). For Ch. IV.: ch. xili. (Parsees); chs. xiv., xv., xix., Ixxxi.
(temples); ch. xlvi. (various religions); chs. liv., Iv. (the Samajes);
chs. 1x1., 1x11. (Benares); chs. Ixxi.-lxxiv. (Agra, the Taj, Delhi); ch.
xslii. (Blavatsky-Olcott theosophy).

' India, Ceylon, Straits Settlements, British North Borneo, Hong-kong.
1899. Illustrating Ch. I.: pp. 1-294. For Ch. II.: pp. 296-305 (ancient
India). For Ch. III.: pp. 364-374 (Hindu women); pp. 375-384 (Mo-
hammedan women): pp. 385-300 (Pareee women).

Jackson, J. Mary Reed, Missionary to the Lepers. 1899. Illustrating Ch,
VI. : leper work.

*njones, J. P. India's Problem, Krishna or Christ. 1903. Ulustrating Ch.
III.; pp. 15-53 (people, education. Government); ch. v. (woman).
For Ch. IV.: ch. il. (religions); ch. ill. (Hunduism and Christianity
compared); ch. iv. (products of the two faiths). For Ch. V.: ch. vl.
For Ch. VI.: ch. vll. (the missionary); ch. vill. (organized activities);
<?h. ix. (problems). For Oh. VIII.: chs. x., xl. (results).

Judson, E. The Life of Adonlram Judson. 1883. Illustrating Ch. I.:
ch. iv. For Ch. IV.: pp. 64-73 (Buddhism). For Ch. V.: throughout,
for Burma. For Ch. VI.: Appendix P. (wayside preaching).

"» Kellogg, S. H. A Handbook of Comparative Religion. 1899. Illustrating
Ch, IV.: pp. 18-34 (doctrine of God); pp. 40-56 (doctrine of sin); pp.

APPENDIX A 289

65-89 (salvation); pp. 95-114 (the future); pp. 118-139 (practical
morals).

"Kennedy, J. Memoir of Margaret Stephen Kennedy. 1892. Illustrating
Ch. VI.: throughout, for woman's work in Northern India.

'Lawrence, E. A. Modem Missions in the East: Their Methods, Successes,
and Limitations. 1894. Ulustrating Chs. IV.-VI.: ch. iv.

'Leonowens, A. H. Life and Travel iu India. 1884. lUustrating Ch. IV.:
chs. v., vi. (Parsees).

•Lovett, R. The History of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895.
1899. Illustrating: Chs. T.-Vin,: very valuable in sections on India;
consult Index.

*' Lyall, A. C. Asiatic Studies. 1882. Ulustrating Ch, HI. : ch. vll.
(caste). For Ch. IV.: chs. I.-iil., v. (Hinduism); ch. ix. (Islam);
ch. xi. (religious situation). Tor Ch. VII.: ch. x. (Government's re-
ligious policy in India).
•Macdoneli, A. A. A History of Sanskrit Literature. 1900. Illustrating
Ch. II.: throughout.

'Marshman, J. C. Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, K. 0. B.
1867. niustrating Ch. IV.: throughout, for Sepoy Mutiny.

*rMar8hman, J. C. The History of India. 3 vols. 1867. Illustrating Ch.
II.: especially from 976 A. D. to 1858.

"Maxwell, E. B. The Bishop's Conversion. 1892. Illustrating Ch. VI.:
especially good as an apologetic for missions and for vivid pictures
of the work.

Menzies, A. History of Religion. 1895. Illustrating Ch. II.: chs. xiv.,
xviii. (early Aryan religion). For Ch. IV.: ch. xlii. (Islam); ch. xlx.
(Brahmanism) ; ch. xx. (Buddhism).

•"Missionary Conference: South India and Ceylon, 1879. 2 vols. 1880.
niustrating Ch. IV.: vol. i., pp. 293-320 (danger of coming out of
heathenism); ch. xi. (Mohammedanism). For Ch, V.: vol. ii., pp.
1-296 (historical sketches of societies); pp. 329-340 (Catholic missions).
For Cli. VI, : vol. 1., pp. 5-30 (vernacular evangelistic work) ; pp. 30-67
(new converts) ; pp. 68-103 (higher education) ; pp. 104-138 (educated
Hindus and how reached) ; pp. 139-155 (middle and lower class educa-
tion) ; pp. 158-192 (female education) ; pp. 193-234 (Sunday schools
and Bible classes); pp. 235-252 (orphanages and industrial work); pp.
253-268 (medical work); pp. 270-293, 399-404 (native Church); pp.
346-397 (native ministry); pp. 404-421 (colportage).
Missionary Review of the World. Illustrating Ch. I. 1898; Jan., pp.
36-41; Feb., pp. 119-122 (famine and plague); Aug., pp. 580-587 (dis-
satisfaction with Government).

For Ch. n. 1891: Feb., pp. 108-117 (Buddha and Christ) . — 1894:
Mar., pp. 179-187, Apr., pp. 254-258 (early religions). — 1898: May,
pp. 326-332 (Jainism).

For Ch. III. 1890: Apr., pp. 248-254 (life among Karens). — 1894:
Feb., pp. 99-102(caste women); Apr., pp. 267-270 (child marriage); Apr.,
pp. 445-447 (hill tribes). — 1895: Apr., pp. 276-279 (Pariahs). — 1897:
Apr., pp. 260-283 (caste); May, pp. 368-371 (Savara hill tribe). — 1898:
Apr., pp. 249-256 (women); Apr., pp. 256-261 (sweeper caste). — 1899:
Dec, pp. 907-915 (village system). — 1900: May, pp. 355-359 (Hindus
of South India). — 1901: Apr., pp. 264-267 (the Todas). — 1903; Jan.,
pp. 16-22 (Gonds).

For Ch. IV. 1890: Jy., pp. 501-507 (the Samajes) . — 1891 : Apr.,
pp. 274-276 (Khasi traditions of Creation). — 1893: Apr., pp. 241-248
(Brahmanism); Mav, pp. 329-336 (Hinduism). — 1895: Apr., pp. 260-
267 (19th century reformers); May, pp. 331-339 (Idolatry). — 1898:
Apr pp. 260-265 (Hinduism's changed f rent) . — 1897 : Apr., pp. 248-
252 (Hinduism). — 1898: Nov., pp. 827-833 (doctrine of sacrifice).—
1899- Apr. pp. 273-276 (Benares). — 1901: Apr., pp. 271-275 (sacred
trees and rivers). — 1903: May, pp. 321-328 (Mohammedanism).

For Ch. V. 1889: Jan.. pp. 14-20 (Martyn); Dec, pp. 729-733

(Carey) 1891: Apr., pp. 241-249 (Jesuit work); Mar., pp. 172-179,

Apr 247-254 (Christianity in India). —1896: Oct., pp. 750-757 (Mala-
bar Syrians).- 1902: Apr., pp. 276-281 (Lacroix). — 1903; Feb., pp.
112-118 (Catholic view of India) .

290 APPENDIX A

For Cli. VI. 1891: Sept., pp. 661-669 (education). — 1S92: Oct.,
pp. 787-789 (rescue work). — ■ 1894: Apr., pp. 281-284 (woman's medical
training); Dec, pp. 921-923 (higher education). — 1895: Aug., pp.
586-588 (theological schools). — 1897: Apr., pp. 273-279 (woman's
work); Apr., pp. 280-282 (woman's medical school). — 1898: Dec, pp.
897-903 (educated classes). — 1899: Aug., pp. 599-602 (Agra Medical
Institute). —1901: Jy., pp. 622-525 (mission colleges). — 1902: Jy.,
pp. 513-518 (literature). — 1903: May, pp. 367-371, Oct., pp. 758-763
(Industrial missions). — 1903: Dec, pp. 922-927 (reaching educated
Hindus).

For Ch. VII. 1888: Jan., pp. 16-22 (problems); Apr., pp. 257-261
(Ongole revival). — 1891: May, pp. 328-340 (Karen revival). — 1802:
Apr., pp. 291-297 (N. India mass movements) ; Apr., pp. 297-299 (Arya
Samaj). — 1894: Jan., pp. 50-53 (mass movements): Apr., pp. 270-
274 (education); Sept., pp. 663-68T (charge of failure). — 1895: Dec,
pp. 924-928 (N. India mass movements). — 1898: Dec, pp. 881-897
(educational missions). — 1900; Dec, pp. 951-953 (Christ owned and
disowned). — 1901: Oct., pp. 774-777 (mass movements).. — 1902:
Oct., pp. 764-787 (industrial expositions).

For Ch, VIII. 1892: Dec, pp. 927-932 (attitude of educated
Hindus). — 1893: Apr., pp. 248-255, Jy., pp. 517-523, Aug., pp. 595-
601 (the outlook). — 1896: Oct., pp. 760-764 (power of Gospel).—
1897: Apr., pp. 267-273 (results). — 1898: Apr., pp. 278-282 (Eama-
bai's widows); Dec, pp. 585-587 (America's responsibility). — 1899:
June, pp. 429-434, Sept., pp. 677-681 (status and results). — 1900: Apr.,
pp. 263-289 (India as a mission f ield) . — 1901 : May, pp. 338-347
(Ramabai's widows). — -1902: Apr., pp. 241-248 (signs of awakening);
Apr., pp. 271-276 (progress In S. India); Sept., pp. 696-698 (possibil-
ities). — 1903: Feb., pp. 137, 138 (India to-day); Apr., p. 261 (appeal
for 9000 missionaries); May, pp. 371-376 (Dr. Hall In India); Aug., pp.
B83-586 (revival in India). — 1903: Dec, p. 931 (changes In twenty
years).

mMitchell, J. M, Hinduism, Past and Present. 1885. lUuatrating Ch. H.:
cbs. i.-lx. For Ch. IV. : chs. x.-xv.

nMltchell, J. M., editor. Once Hindu, now Christian: the Early Life of
Baba Padmanji; an Autobiography. No date. Illustrating Ch. IV.:
ch. Ix. (native view of Hinduism). For Chs. VI., VII.: throughout
shows how men are won and their difficulties and labors.

»nMitchell, Mrs. M. Scenes in Southern India. No date. Illustrating Ch.
III.; ch. XXV. (the Todas). For Ch. V.: ch. xxl. (the Black and White
Jews): ch. yi. (early missions). For Ch. VI.: throughout, for work in
Southern India.

°Hodak, S. Directory of Protestant Indian CShristians. 2 vols. 1900. Il-
lustrating Ch. VIII.: vol. i., pp. iii.-xxvi.. and vol. 11., Appendix.

•<-Mott, J. R, Strategic Points in the World's Conquest. 1897. Illustra-
ting Chs. VI. and VIII, : chs. viii.-x. (especially in the student work).

*Muir, J. Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People
of India. 5 vols. 1872. Illustrating Chs. II. and IV.: throughout,
especially vol. 1. for history and vol. v. for deities.

Muir, W,, and Others. Present-Day Tracts on the Non-Christian Religions
of the World. No date. Illustrating Ch. IV.: tract xlv. (Islam);
tract XXV. (Parsees); tract xxxili. (Hinduism); tract xlvi. (Buddhism).

tMiiller, F. Max-. India: What Can It Teach Us? 1883. Illustrating Ch.
II.: lectures iii.-vi. (literature and religions). For Ch. III.: lectures
i., il. For Ch, Vn. ; lecture vii. (Veda and Vedanta).

•MUller, F. Max-, editor. Sacred books of the East. Various dates. Illus-
trating Chs. 11. and IV, All but four of the forty-nine volumes are
translations of books having to do with Hinduism, Buddhism, Moham-
medanism, Parseeism, and Jainism.

*mMurdoch, J, Indian Missionary Manual. Hints to Young Missionaries in
India. The paging of the four editions varies. Extremely valuable for
entire text-book, especially for ch. vi. Consult Index and Contents.

^Murdoch, J. The Brabma Samaj and Other Modern Eclectic Systems of
Eellgion In India. 1893. Illustrating Chs. IV., VII.: throughout.

"Murdoch, J, The Women of India and What can be Done for Them.

APPENDIX A ' '2gi

1895. Uluatratinff Ch. III. : pp. 1-19 (estimate and atatns ot women) ;
pp. 54-83 (marriage customs); pp. 83-90 (Hindu family system); pp.
116-135 (widows). For Cli. VI.: pp. 19-54 (female education); pp.
108-116 (literature for women).

» Murdoch, J. Selections from the Koran: with an Introduction, Copious
Explanatory Notes and a Review of the Whole. 1896. lUustrating
Ch. IV.; for Mohammedanism, especially that of India.

»■» Murdoch, J. Sketches of Indian Christians. 1896. Illustrating Chs. VI.:
and VIII,: the book throughout.

Myers, J. B. William Carey. No date. Illustrating Ch, V.: throughout.

Oldenherg, H. Ancient India, Its Languages and Eeligions. 1898. Illus-
trating Ch. II.; pp. 43-77 (Vedic religion); pp. 78-105 (Buddhism).

Padmanji: see Mitchell, 3. M,, editor.

Page, J. Henry Martyn. No date. Illustrating Ch. V.: chs. iy.-vli.

"Papers on Indian Reform — Christianity explained to a Hindu, or Chris-
tianity and Heathenism Compared. 1893. Illustrating Chs. IV. and

Periodical Literature. Many valuable articles bearing on India are found
In the secular periodicals. Consult, under India, the Annual Literary
Index. Cumulative Index to Periodicals, and Poole's Index to Periodi-
cal Literature.

Pierson, A. T. The Miracles ot Missions. Third Series. 1899. Illustra-
ting Ch. VIII.: ch. xlil. (Eamabai's work).

•Powell, H. H. Baden-, The Indian Village Community. 1898. Illustra-
ting Ch, III.

Proceedings of the C!onference on Foreign Missions, Mlldmay Park, Lon-
don, 1886. 1886. Illustrating Oh, IV.: pp. 23-28 (Mohammedans).
For Chs. VI., VIII.: pp. 76-94.

™ Proceedings of the General Conference on Foreign Missions, Mlldmay Park,
London, 18T8. 1879. Illustrating Ch. IV.: pp. 161-168 (Mohammedan-
Ism and Hinduism vs. Christianity). For Ch. V.: pp. 117-124. For
Ch. VI.: pp. 124-125 (education). For Ch, VII.: pp. 323-333 (Moham-
medan missions).

^Proceedings of the Union Missionary Convention, held in New York, May
4th and 5th, 1854, together with the Address of the Rev. Dr. Duff.
1854. Illustrating Chs. VI,, VIII,: pp. 31-60 (general survey and ex-
hortation).

Progress. Illustrating Ch. IV.: Nov., 1897 (Hinduism); Jan., 1898 (Bud-
dhism, Parsees) ; Feb., 1898 (Mohammedanism).

"Protestant Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, Statistical Tables, 1900.
1902. Illustrating Ch. VIII.: throughout.

uRamakrishna, T. Life In an Indian Village. 1891. Illustrating Ch. III.:
throughout, from native viewpoint. For Ch. IV. : chs. xi.-xlv. (sketches
of religious life).

•Eatzel, F, The History of Mankind. 3 vols. 1898. HUiatrating Ch. III. ;
vol. ill., pp. 371-394 (common life, caste, etc.); pp. 430-437 (hiU tribes,
especially in Burma).

•Eeclus, E. The Earth and its Inhabitants. Asia 1891. Illustrating
Chs. I. and III.: vol. ill., chs. l.-xv. : exceedingly picturesque and help-
ful throughout.

' Eees, J, D. The Muhammadans, 1001-1761. 1894. Illustrating Ch. II.

*nirReport of the Centenary Conference of the Protestant Missions of the
World, held In Exeter Hall (June 9th-19th), London, 1888. 2 vols.
1889. For Uluatrating Ch. IV.; vol. 1., pp. 12-17, 28, 29 (Mohammedan-
Ism) ; pp. 33-40 (Buddhism) ; pp. 40-50 (Jalnlsm) ; pp. 50-60 (Hinduism
and ChrlsUanity) ; pp. 60-66 (Parseeism). For Ch. VI.: vol., 11. pp.
126-132 (medical missions); pp. 147-151 (woman's work; pp. 192-196
212-216, 230-246, 263-256 (education); pp. 258-266 (literature); 350-356
(general methods); 369-376 (training workers); pp. 411-415 (industrial
training). For Ch. VII.: vol. 11., pp. 51-81 (polygamy question).

*"Report of the Fourth Decennial Indian Missionary Conference, held in
Madras, December 11-18. 1902. 1903. Illustrating Ch. VI.; pp. 18-36
(native Church) ; pp. 36-49 (ministry and its training) ; pp. 49-61 (work
for young); pp. 65-79 (evangelistic work); pp. 84-96 (educational
work) ; 99-118, 258-263 (women's work) ; pp. 120-136 (medical work, in-

292 APPENDIX A

eluding that for lepers); pp. 138-153 (Industrial work); pp. 167-201
(literary and Bible worli). For Cli. VIII.: pp. 202-207 (appeal to home
churches) ; pp. 217-224 (statistical review 1891-1900) ; pp. 248-257 (mis-
sions in Burma). For Chs. IV. and VII.: pp. 264-350 (religious move-
ments among Hindus and Mohammedans in last decade) .

*mReport of the Third Decennial Missionary Conference, held at Bombay,
1892-93. 2 vols. 1893. Illustrating Ch, IV.: pp. 782-795 (transmigra-
tion). For Ch. VI.: pp. 5-55 (work among depressed classes); pp. 96-
119 (leper work); pp. 120-177 (native Church); pp. 178-225 (religious
training of the young) ; pp. 258-313 (work for educated classes) ; pp.
314-369 (woman's work) ; pp. 370-412 (training of native ministry) ;
pp. 413-477 (education as a missionary agency); pp. 478-510 (Industrial
work); pp. 541-589 (missions and social conditions); pp. 664-740 (Chris-
tian literature).

Reports of the Boards of Missions of the Provinces of Canterbury and
York on the Mission Field. 1894. Illustrating Cha. V.-VIII. : pp.
141-259 (special reference to Church of England missions, though ad-
mirable for others and especially for problems).

mRice, H. Native Life in South India: Being Sketches of the Social and
Religious Characteristics of the Hindus. No Date. Illustrating Ch.
III.: chs. ii.-v. (castes and customs); ch. viii. (woman); ch. ix. (char-
acter). For Ch. IV.: chs. vi., vil. For Ch. VI.: chs. x., xl. (educa-
tional evangelistic work). For Ch. VIII.: ch. xii.

RohertB, A., and J. Donaldson, editors. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. 9 vols.
American edition. 1890. Illustrating Ch. V.: vol. vill., pp. 535-552
(early traditions of St. Thomas).

mRowe, A. D. Every-Day Life in India. 1881. Illustrating Ch. III. :
chs. 1., 11. (people and home life); chs. ix., i. (women and marriage);
chs. xviil., xix. (festivals and amusements); chs. xxvi, xsvii. (farm-
ing); ch. XXXV. (the travelled Hindu). For Ch. IV.: ch. ill. (religion
of Hindus); chs. Iv., v. (caste). For Ch. VI.: ch. xxxviii. For Ch.
VII.: ch. xl. (caste and converts). For Ch. VIII.: ch. xxxlx, (pros-
pects).

mRussell, N. Village Work In India. 1902. Illustrating Ch. VI.: good
throughout, especially for evangelistic work. For Ch. VIII.: ch. xv.
(India's need and how to meet it).

mScott, T. J. Missionary Life Among the Villages in India. 1876- Il-
lustrating Ch. VI., throughout for the dally life in North India,
especially for itineration.

♦mSherring, M. A., and E. Storrow. The' History of Protestant Missions
In India, from the Commencement to 1881. 1884. Illustrating Ch.
v.: throughout, but especially ch. 1. for work In eighteenth century.
For Ch, VIII.: ch. xx. (results twenty years ago).

oTSimpson, A. B. Larger Outlooks on Missionary Lands. 1893. lUus-
trating Ch. VI.: chs. x.-xvl. (methods and general conditions of work).

*m Slater, T. E. The Higher Hinduism in Relation to Christianity. 1902.
Illustrating Chs. II., IV.: throughout. For Ch. VII.: ch. 11. (present
Hindu revival and modern Samajes).

mSmall, A. H. Suwarta and Other Sketches of India Life. 1894. Illus-
trating Ch. VI.: good throughout for woman's work, especially in Mo-
hammedan sections.

or Smith, G. Bishop Heber. 1895. Illustrating Ch. V.: throughout.

*<'r Smith, G. Henry Martyn, Saint and Scholar, no data. Illustrating
Ch. v.: chs. Iv.-vii.

o'Smith, G. Stephen Hlslop. 2nd edition. 1SS9. Illustrating Ch. VI.

*>' Smith, G. The Conversion of India, from Pantaenus to the Present
Time, A. D. 193-1893. No date. Illustrating Ch. V.: ch. 11. (the
Greek attempt); ch. ill. (the Roman attempt); ch. iv. (Xavler and
his successors); pp. 76-81 (the Dutch attempt); ch. v. (British East
India Company's preparation); ch. vl. (Britain's attempt); ch. vil.
(co-operation of the United States). For Ch. VI.: ch. vl. (methods).
For Ch. VIII.: ch. Ix. (results); ch. x. (prospects).

*or Smith, G. The Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. 2 vols. No
date. Illustrating Ch, VI. : throughout for educational missions,
especially chs. v.-viii. One volume edition of above. 1900.

APPENDIX A 293

*" Smith, G. The Life of William Carey, D.D., Shoemaker and Mis-
sionary. 1887. Illustrating Clis. V. and VI.: throuffhout.

•' Speer, E. E. Missions and Politics in Asia. 1898. Illustrating Ch. V.:
pp. 83-112.

» Spiritual Awakening among India's Students. 1896. Illustrating Ch,
VIII.: Part II., especially pp. 69-78, 95-101.

•Spottiswoode, G. A., editor. The Official Report of the Missionary Con-
ference of the Anglican Communion, 1894. 1894. Illustrating Ch. IV. :
pp. 93-99 (Hinduism); pp. 100-107 (Buddhism). For Ch. VI.: pp. 352-
363 (associate missions and family life) ; pp. 377-394 (educational
work); pp. 407-411 (medical work); pp. 486-600 (native agency). For
Ch. VII.: pp. 188-191, 203-206 (support); pp. 191-192, 195-203 (caste);
pp. 192-195 (marriage of converts); pp. 281-303 (polygamy).

'Stacy, T. H. In the Path of Light Around the World. 1895. lUus-
trating Chs. V., VI.: chs. xU, xii. (Free Baptist work).

•"Stewart, E. Life and Work in India. 1896. Illustrating Ch. I.: ch. iv.
(climate) ; ch. v. (sanitary conditions) ; ch. viii. (roads and communi-
cations). For Ch. III.: ch. ill. (British ru.e) ; ch. xii. (Punjabis and
inhabitants of India in general) ; ch. vi. (domestic and social con-
ditions), tor Ch. VI,: ch. xiv. (secular work); chs. xv.-six., xxi.,
xxii. (evangelistic work) ; eh. xxiii. (lower training of Christians) ;
chs. xxiv., XXV. (higher training of Christians) ; ch. xxvi. (self-sup-
port) ; ch. xxviii. (self-government of church). For Ch. TTII. : ch. xx.
(obstruction and persecution). For Ch, VIII.: ch. xxix. (outlook).

*> Stock, E. The History of the Church Missionary Society. 3 vols. 1899.
Illustrating Chs. V.-VIII. ; very valuable in sections relating to India,
for which see Index.

"Stover, W. B. India a Problem. 1902. Illustrating Oh. III.: chs. ii..
Hi. For Ch, IV.: eh. iv. (Parsees) ; ch. v. (Buddhists); ch. vl. (Mo-
hammedans); ch, vii. (Hinduism); ch. viii. (materials for comparativ'e
study). For Ch. V.: chs. ix-xxi. (summary of work of principal
societies). For Ch. VIII.: ch. xxiv. (New India).

"Student Missionary Appeal, The. Addresses at the Third International
Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,
1898. 1898. Illustrating Chs. VI., VIII.: pp. 305-323.

"Student Missionary Enterprise, The. Addresses and Discussions of the
Second International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement
for Foreign Missions. 1894. Illustrating Chs. VI. and VIII.: pp.
270-283.

"Swaml Vivekananda and His Guru: with Letters from Prominent Amer-
icans in the Alleged Progress of Vedantism in the United States. 1897.
Illustrating Chs. IV. and VII.: throughout.

'Temple, E. India in 1880. 1881. Illustrating Ch. I.: eh. ii. (scenery);
ch. xvii. (natural resources); ch. xix. (health and sanitation); ch. xx.
(famines). For Ch. III.: ch. vi. (material progress of Hindus); ch. vii.
(mental and moral progress); ch. viii. (national education); ch. xxl.
(learned research) ; ehs. x.-xiii. (laws, crime, taxes, revenues). For
Ch. v.: ch. ix. (religious establishments and missions).

"Sacred Books of the Bast Described and Examined. Hindu series. 3 vols.
Various dates. Illustrating Chs. II. and IV,: both ancient and modern
Hinduism.

" Thobum, J. M. India and Malaysia. 1892. Illustrating Ch. I.: chs.
i., ii., iv. For Ch. III.; ch. 11. For Ch. IV.: ch. v.; ch. vi. (Hinduism);
ch vii (Buddhism); ch. viii. (Mohammedanism); ch. x. (new religious
movements). For Ch. V.: chs. xi.-xv. For Ch. VI.: ch. xxiv. (mission
schools) ; ch. xxv. (Sunday schools) ; chs. xxvl.-xxix. (woman's work,
including educational and medical).

"Thohum J.M, Light in the East. 1894. Illustrating Ch. VI.; throughout.

o Thompson E. W., and A. N. Johnson. British Foreign Missions, 1837-
1897 1899 Illustrating Ch. V.: pp. 28-40 (growth in India). For Ch.
VI • 'pp 129-136 (education) ; pp. 147-153 (literature) ; pp. 185-187 (med-
ical' missions) ; pp. 188-205 (woman's work).

Thomson, W. B. A Memoir of William Jackson Elmslie. 1891. Illus-
trating Ch IV. : throughout, for medical work.

BliBdall, W, St. Clair, Buddhism at Its Best. 1903. Illustrating Ch, I,;

294 APPENDIX A

lecture 1. (life of Buddha). For Ch. IV.: throughout, especially lec-
ture Iv. (Buddhism and Christianity).

•"Tisdall, vr. St. Clair-, India: Its History, Darlsness and Dawn. 1901.
lUustratinB Ch. II,: pp. 1-51. For Ch. IT,: pp. 52-85 (Hinduism); pp.
66-76 (Buddhism); pp. 77-87 (Mohammedanism). For Ch, V,: pp. 88-
119. Appendix II. contains an excellent Indian Bibliography.

iTownsend, M, Asia and Europe. 1901. Illustrating Ch. Ill,: pp, 268-
27T (variety in society); pp. 227-234 (abstemiousness). For Ch, VIII,:
pp. 67-81 (criticism of Indian missions).

'Trotter, L, J, History of India from the Earliest Times to the Present
Day. 1889. Illustrating Ch. II.: throughout.

•Tucker, H, W., editor. Classified Digest of the Eecords of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701-1892. 1893.
Illustrating Chs. V,, VI,: pp. 469-659 (excellent for work of the
Society).

•"Warneck, G, Outline of a History of Protestant Missions from the Ref-
ormation to the Present Time. Seventh edition. 1901. Illustrating
Ch, V,: pp. 248-266.

•■Wayland, F, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adonlram
Judson, D.D. 2 vols. 1853. Illustrating Ch. IV.: vol. 1., pp. 138-153;
vol. 11., pp. 407-419 (Buddhism in Burma). For Ch. V.: throughout
lor Burma. For Ch. VI,: vol. 11., ch. iv. (translatlonal work); pp.
448-458 (translation of Burmese tract) ; pp. 502-518 (wayside preach-
ing).
1 STherry, E, M. Zelnab, the Punjabi. 1895. Illustrating Oh. VI. : through-
out, showing the effect of the Gospel on a Mohammedan widow,
t "Williams, M. Monier-. Brahmanism and Hinduism, 4th ed. 1891. Illus-
trating Ch. n. : chs. i., 11. (Vedism, Brahmanism); ch. xlll. (ancient
family life). For Ch. III.: ch. xvlii. (caste and occupations). For
Ch, IV,: throughout. For Ch. VII,: chs. xix., xx. (modern theism aad
reformers).

'Williams, M, Monier-, Hinduism. No date. Illustrating Ch, II.: chs.
I.-vil. For Ch, III,: ch. xi. (modern caste). For Ch, IV.: ch. x.
(mediaeval and modern sects) ; ch. xii. (modern idol worship, etc.) .

■Wilson, Mrs. A, Carus-. A Woman's Life for Kashmir, Irene Petrle. 1901.
Illustrating Ch. VI.: throughout, for woman's work in Northern India.

*rWilson, J. Indian Caste. 2 vols. 1877. Illustrating Ch. Ill, ; throughout.

Wintle, W. J,, editor. Dr. J. L. Phillips, Missionary to the Children of
India. 1898. Illustrating Ch. VI.: throughout, for Sunday school work.

mWorld-WIde Evangelization the Urgent Business of the Church. Fourth
International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement. 1902.
Illustrating Ch. VI.: pp. 489-494 (evangelistic work); pp. 533-548
(education). For Ch. VIIL: pp. 89-93, 353-379.

mYoungson, J. W. F, Forty Years of the Punjab Mission of the Church
of Scotland, 1855-1895. 1896. Illustrating Ch. I.: ch. 1. For Ch.
Ill,; ch. ii. (village system); ch. vil. (social customs); ch. xviii.
(Chambra people). For Ch. V.: ch. xii. (the Mutiny). For Ch. VI,:
chs. xxi.-xxx. (medical work) ; ch. xxiii. (schools) ; ch. xxiv. (bazaar
preaching): chs. xxv., xxvi. (itineration); ch. ixxi. (woman's work).

« Young, R, The Success of Christian Missio ns : Testimonies to Their
Beneficial Results. 1890. lUustrating Ch. Vm,; pp. 71-151.

APPENDIX B

295

Appendix B — Comparative

Taken from Protestant Missions In
Statistical Tables, 1900.

Summary, 1851-1900

India, Burma and Ceylon,

1851

1861

1871

1881

1890

1900

Ordained Agents, Foreign

339'
21>

601
143

517
302

622
675

918
943

1049

Ordained Agents, Asian...

9051'

Catechlsts or Preachers,
Asian

493«
267«

1677
643

2344
2631

2856
4180

3987
5495

6653

Organized Congregations,

6535

Communicants, Asian

.4661»

43415

73330

138254

215759

343906

Christian Community,

91092«

198100

286987

1561

492882

65728

1321

648843

144263

1743

978936

Sunday-school Pupils,

291752

Theol. and Training School

1510

College and Upper School

1240111

21676

40911

46099

55063

52597

Lower School Pupils, Male

38661"

40164

58278

91047

132312

162645

Boarding School, etc.,

1788*

2988

14975

Female Agents, Foreign

405

622

770

1302

Female Agents, Asian

a

a

863

1714

3420

5965

Training School Pupils,

557

„

,

712

Girls' School Pupils

11193*

17035

25630

48761

73572

90762

1997«

9132»
■6717

32659a

39894"

Boarding School, etc..
Boarders, Female

22741'

4015

7604

13514

I No returns for Burma. >> Beturns Incomplete. » No returns.

296

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J3

Q I

c

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X

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APPENDIX C, PART I

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APPENDIX Cj PART I 297

Distribution of Societies by Provinces and Native States

Ajmere-Merwara, — Methodist Episcopal Church; United Free Church of
Scotland; "World's Y. W. C. A.

Assam. — American Baptist Mlss'y Union; Assam Frontier Pioneer
Mission; Gossner's Mission; United Free Church of Scotland; Welsh Calvin-
Istic Methodists.

Baluchistan. — Church Miss'y Society; Church of Eng. Zenana MisB'y
Soc; Methodist Episcopal Church.

Baroda. — Methodist Episcopal Church.

Bengal. — Baptist Miss'y Society; Baptist Union of W. Australia;
Baptist Zenana Mission; Bengal Evangelistic Mission; Bengali Mission;
Bethel Santhal Mission; British and For. Bible Society; Chinsurah and
Hooghly Zen. Mission; Christian Missions, (" Brethren "); Christian
Woman's Bd. of Missions; Church Miss'y Society; Church of Eng. Zenana
Miss'y Soc; Church of Scotland For. Mission Com.; Free Baptists; Furreed-
pore Mission; Gen'l Eldership, Churches of God; Gossner's Mission; Indian
Home Mission to the Santhals; India Sunday School Union; International
Com., y. M. 0. A.; London Miss'y Society; Methodist Episcopal Church;
Miss'y Pence Assn.; New Zealand Baptists; Oxford Mission to Calcutta;
Presbyterian Church of Eng.; Queensland Baptists Ranaghat Medical Mis-
sion; " Regions Beyond '* Miss'y Union; Scandinavian Alliance Mission;
Seventh-day Adventists; Society for Propagation of the Gospel; United
Free Church of Scotland; United Society of Christian Endeavor; Victorian
Baptists; Wesleyan Methodist Miss'y Soc; Woman's Union Miss'y Society;
World's y. W. C. A.

Berar. — Christian and Miss'y Allianee; Free Methodists, N. A.;
Kurku and Cen'l Indian Hill Mission; Methodist Episcopal Church.

Bomhay, ^ American Board of Foreign Missions; American Seamen's
Friend Soc; British and For. Bible Soc; Christian and Miss'y Alliance;
Christian Literature Soc; Christian Missions, ('* Brethren ") ; Church Miss'y
Soc; Church of Eng. Zenana Miss'y Soc; Church of Scotland For. Mission
Com.; Evan. Miss'y Soc. in Basel; German Baptist Brethren; London Miss'y
Soc; Methodist Episcopal Church; National Coun., Y. M. C. A.; Penlel
Miss'y Soc; Poona and Indian Village Mission; Presbyterian Board of
Missions; Presbyterian Church in Ireland; Society for Propagation of the
Gospel; United Free Church of Scotland; Wesleyan Methodist Miss'y Soc;
World's Y. W. C. A.; Zenana Bible and Medical Mission.

Burma. — American Baptist Miss'y Union; British and For. Bible Soc;
China Inland Mission; Evan. Luth. Mission at Leipzig; Methodist Episcopal
Church ; Miss'y Pence Assn. ; National Coun., Y. M. C. A. ; Society for
Propagation of the Gospel; Wesleyan Methodist Miss'y Soc; World's
Y. W. C. A.

Central India. — American Friends* Bd. of For. Missions; Friends* For.
Mission Assn.; Presbyterian Church, Canada; World's Y. W. C. A.

Central Provinces. — Balagbat Mission; Baptist Miss'y Soc; Chris-
tian Woman's Bd. of Missions; Church Miss'y Soc; Church of Eng. Zenana
Miss'y Soc; Evan. National Soc; Foreign Christian Miss'y Soc; Friends'
For. Mission Assn.; German Evan. Synod of N. America; Kurku and Cen'l
Indian Hill Mission; Mennonite Evangelizing and Benevolent Bd. ; Methodist
Episcopal Church; Pentecost Bands of the World; Representative Ch. Coun.
of the Epis. Ch. In Scotland; United Free Church of Scotland; United
Original Secession Ch. of Scotland; Wesleyan Methodist Miss'y Soc;
World's Y. W. C. A.

Coorg. — Evan. Miss'y Soc. In Basel. (Coorg does not appear In the
foregoing table, aa the work of this Society in the province could not bo
separated from Its work In Madras.)

Haidarabad. — American Baptist Miss'y Union; Church Miss'y Soc;
Church of Bug. Zenana Miss'y Soc; Methodist Episcopal Church; United
Free Church of Scotland; Wesleyan Methodist Miss'y Soc; World's Y. W.
C. A.; Zenana Bible and Medical Misslun.

Kashmir. — Church Miss'y Soc; Church of Eng. Zenana Miss'y Soc;
Church of Scotland For. Mission Com.; Moravian Missions; Scandinavian
Alliance Mission.

29^

APPENDIX C, PART I

Madras. — American Advent Mission Soc; American Eaptigt Mlss'y
Union; American Board of For. Missions; Baptist Convention of Maritime
ProYS.; Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec; Baptist Mlss'y Soc;
Baptist Zenana Mission; British and For. Bible Soc; Ceylon and India
Gen'l Mission ; Christian Literature Soc. ; Christian Missions, ( * 'Breth-
ren"); Church Mlss'y Soc; Church of Eng. Zenana Mlss'y Soc; Church of
Scotland For. Mission Com.; Danish Mlss'y Soc; Evan. Luth. Church, Gen'i
Synod; Evan. Luth. Mission at Leipzig; Evan. Mlss'y Soc In Basel; Gen'l
Conn., Evan. Luth. Church; International Com., Y. M. C. A.; London Mlss'y
Soc; LSventhal's Mission; Methodist Episcopal Church; Mlss'y Pence Assn.;
Mission Institute at Hermannsburg; Reformed Church In America; Sehles-
wig-Holstein Evan. Luth. Mission Soc; Society for Propagation of the
Gospel; South Arcot Highways and Hedges Mission; Synod of Missouri,
Ohio and other States; United Free Church of Scotland; Wesleyan Meth-
odist Mlss'y Soc; World's Y. W. C. A.; Zenana Bible and Medical Mission.

Mysore. — American Advent Mission Soc; Ceylon and India Gen'l Mis-
sion; Christian Missions, ("Brethren"); Church of Eng. Zenana MIsa'y
Soc; International Com., Y. M. C. A.; Methodist Episcopal Church; Wes-
leyan Methodist Mlss'y Soc; World's T. W. C. A.

Northwest Frontier Province. — Church Mlss'y Soc; Church of Bug.
Zenana Mlss'y Soc.

Punjab, — Baptist Mlss'y Soc; Baptist Zenana Mission; British and
For. Bible Soc; Church Mlss'y Soc; Church of En^. Zenana Mlss'y Soc;
Church of Scotland For. Mission Com.; International Com., Y. M. C. A.;
Methodist Episcopal Church; Moravian Missions; N. India School of Medi-
cine for Christian Women; Presbyterian Board of Missions; Reformed
Presbyterian Church, N. A., Gen'l Synod; Society for Propagation of the
Gospel; United Presbyterian Church, N. A.; World's Y. W. C. A.; Zenana
Bible and Medical Mission.

Rajputana. — Church Mlss'y Soc, Methodist Episcopal Church; Presby-
terian Board of Missions; United Free Church of Scotland; World's
Y. W. C. A.

Sikkim. — Church of Scotland For. Mission Com.

United Provinces. — Baptist Mlss'y Society; Baptist Zenana Mission;
British and For. Bible Soc; Christian Woman's Bd. of Missions; Church
Mlss'y Soc; Edinburgh Medical Mlss'y Soc; Gossner's Mission; International
Com., Y. M. C. A.; London Mlss'y Soc; Methodist Episcopal Church; Mlss'y
Pence Assn.; Presbyterian Board of Missions; Reformed Episcopal Church;
Reformed Presbyterian Church, N. A., Gen'l Synod; Scandinavian Alliance
Mission; Society for Propagation of the Gospel; Woman's Union Mlss'y
goc; World's Y. W. O. A.; Zenana Bible and Medical Mission.

Appendix C, Part II — Statistic's of Protestant Missions in India

NAMES OF SOCIETIES

American Societies

American Advent Mission Society

American Baptist Missionary Union

American Board of Foreign Missions

American Friends' Board of For. Missions

American Seamen's l-"rlend Society a

Bd. of For. Miss., Evan. Luth. Cb., Gen'l Syo.t

Bd. of For. Miss., Gen. Conn., Evan. Luth Ch

Bd. of For. Miss.-, Fresb. Cliurcb In U. S. A

Cd. of For. Miss., Itciurmed Cb. iu America

Bd. of For. Miss., Keformed Epln. Cburch

Bd. of F. M., Uet. Frcsb. Cb., N. A., Gen. Syn....

Bd. of li^or. Miss., Unit. Fresb. Ch. of N. A

Bd. of Miss., Gen. Eldership, Cbnrcbes of God

Christian and Missionary Alliance

Christian Woman's Board of Missions

Foreign Christian Missionary Society

For. Dept., Int. Com. of Y. M. C. A'ns, N. A

For. Miss. Bd., Eapt. Conv. of Ont. and Qnebec...
For. Miss. Bd., Bapt. Cony, of the Maritime Provs

For. Miss. Bd., German Evan. Syn. of N. A

Fir. Miss. Committee, Presb. Cb. In Canada

Genera] Conference of Free Baptists

Gen, Miaa. and Tract Com., Ger. Bapt. Brethren..

Gen. Miss. Bd., Free Methodist Ch., N. A

International Union Mission h

Mennonite Evangelizing and Benevolent Bd

Mlss'y Society of the Meth. Epis. Church

Mission Board of Seventh-day Adveutlsts

Miss. Bd. of Syn. of Missouri, Ohio, and other Stales

I'enlel Missionary Society

Pentecost Bands of tlie World

Scandinavian Alliance Mission

United Society of Christian Endeavor)

Woman's Union Bllssionary Society

Totals, 3i American Societies

British Societies

Assam Frontier Pioneer Missiou^

Baptist Missionary Socletyj

Baptist Zenana Mission

Bethel Santbal Mission J

British and Foreign Bible Society)

Ceylon and India General Mission 3

Christian Literature Society

Christian Missions, (commonly "Brethren")....

Church Missionary Society

Church of Eng. Zenana Miss. Society

Ch. of Scot. Com. for Propagat. Gospel in For. Partsi

Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society)

For. Miss. Com.. Unit. Orlg. Secession Cb. of Scot..

For. Mission, Presb. Church iu Ireland

For. Missions Com., Presb. Ch. of England

Friends' Foreign Mission Association

Indus'l Evangelistic Miss, of N. India'

Kuriiu and Cen'l Indian Hill Mission

London Missionary Society

Missionary Pence Association

Mission to Lepers in India and the East'

National Council of Y. M. C. A'ns

N. India Sch'l of Med. for Christian Women

Oxford Mission to Calcutta

"Regions Beyond" Missionary Union

Representative Ch. Conn., Epls. Cb. In Scot.)

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel

South Arcot Highways and Hedges Miss.)

United Free Ch. of Scotland, For. Missions)

Welsh Calvlnistie Methodists' For. Miss

Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society

Zenana Bible and Medical Mission

Totals, 32 British Societies

Continental Societies

Danish Missionary Society )

Evangelical Lutheran Mission at Leipzig

Evangelical Miss. Society In Basel

Evangelical National Society

Gossner's Evan. Missionary Society)

LOventbal's Mission )

Mission Institute at Hermannsburg. Han

Schles.-Holstein Evan. Luth. M. S. at Brelilum

Totals, 8 Continental Societies

International Societies

Balaghat Mission (to the Gonds)

Baptist Union of Western Australia, n. & F. M.

Bengal Evangelistic Mission, Gopalgunge

Bengali Mission

China Inland Mission)

Cblnsurah and Hooghly Zenana Mission

Fureedpore Mission, Incorporated

Indian Home Mission to the Santhals

India Sunday School Union)

Moravian Missionary Society

New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society

Poena and Indian Village Mission''

Queensland Bapt. For. Missionary Society

Ranaghat Medical Mission !>

Salvation Army b

Victorian Baptist Foreign Mission

World's Young Women's Christian Ass'n

Totals, 17 International Societies

Grand Totals, 01 Societies

1002
I'JU^
1901
01-02
02-03
I'JOa
01-02
1902
1902
1902
01-02
1901
1902
19U2
1903
1902.
1902
1902
1901
1902
1902
1902
1902
1902

1902
1902
1902
1902
1902
1'.I02
1902
1902
1902

02-03
1902
1901
1902
1903

1902
1902
01-02
1901
1902
02-03
1902
1902
1902

1902
1902
01-02
1901
1902
01-02
1902
01-02
1902
1932
1902
02-03
1902
1902
1901

1902
1902
1902
02-03
1902
1901
1902

1900

00-01
1900
1902
1900
99-00
02-03
1900
1901
1900
1902
1900

1900
1902

■^2

(n'3

Foreign missionaries,
lucludlng physicians

1S82
l«l:!
1H13
1»95
1»86
1842
1809
1834
1R50
1888
1830
1855
1897
1889
1882
1882
1889
1874
1875
18C9
1876
1836
1896
1891

1899
1856
1893
1895
1896
1892
1892
1901
18C0

1794

1867
1875

1893
1858
1836
1813
1851
1S30
1881
1872
1841
1802
1806

1890
1798
1891
1809
1892
1894
1880
1900
1898
1820
1870
1822
1S41
1815
1862

1864
1840
1834
1877
1844
1872
1800
1884

1874

1876
1875
1867
1867
1890
1855
1888
1893
1889

1880
1894

115

27

109

11
30
59
15
39
1
12
13

180

23
1349

o 5J

S2

11

3

151

40

35
308

2
119
25

7
3

39

10
1
1

19
1

14
4
8

10

10
7
5

15
9
4
3

3

03
6
C

4
5
1

4C4

2

22

130

17
1
1

12
1
9

7

52

4

3S
13
55

423

8
20
69
13
M

1
10

7

154

28
1009

o a

6

10

41
442

20

69

256

44

2
19

2
11

4

37

05

1

50

8

28

154

862

Native
Worliers

5

5lJ

103

1438

2

2 378

738

3

500«

240

310

291

11

15

296"

4

18

6

104«

6

130

60

100

68

93

60

9

2199
4<

23

30

223

'?

2 605

?

312

1

5

200

7

22

9
1 311

4

?

1697

9

12W»

1550

9 717"

36
279
411

27

690

3

121

69

1636

9

102

172
19224

2

624

450

6

14

1.30

1'25

3

65
17

7
39
73
10

4

4

1 3I!7

10
1

2011

3168

701
085
183

8
84

3

6.32

164
302

3104

10

164

69
6503

Stations

ag;

2

05

19

1

2

3

4

25

8

2

7

11

1

18

7

5

5

9

7

4

7

7

4

2

2
70
4
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• Work Is entirely for sailors.

b Statistics for 1002 compiled from printed report.

c Includes women native workers.

i Data for both boarding and day-scbools, and pupils.

e Orphan schools.

' Including pupils iu two high schools.

( Estimated.

t No statistics.

1 Only baptized Infants.

J Statistics compiled from printed reports or letters.

k Report does not distinguish between ordained and unordalned.

I Zenana work as follows: Bapt. Zenana Mission, 3000 bouses, lu43 pupils; Chlnsarah and
Hooghly Zen. Miss., 50 houses, 100 pupils; Church of Eng. Zeu. Miss. Soc, 13277
houses, 6993 pupils under regular teaching; Church of Scot. Com., 547 houses, 1352
pupils; Zenana Bible and Med. Miss.. 4375 houses, 272S pupils.

™ Including industrial settlement,
a Attendances.

Statistics of 1900.

p Boarding schools and orphanages.

1 Including stations where native ordained missionaries reside,
r Including higher Institutions.

■ Ileported by Church Missionary Society,
* Including work of Women's Association.
« Including leper asylums.

▼ Worlis for lepers In conjunction with other Societies and Boards,
w Boarding schoul data.

X Figure supplied by Madras Decennial Conference Report, 1900.
7 Many of these are honorary workers.

« This total includes a large number of duplicates, since several societies have work In
given town.

INDEX

Aborigines of India: earliest inhabi-
tants, 21; their modern represent-
atives, 21, 22; conjectural origin
at, 22, S3; their religion, 23, 24.

Accountant of village, 101.

Adi terahma SamaJ, 140, 141.

Aga Khan's address, 119.

Agni, terrestrial god of (ire, 31.

Agricultural wealth of India, 12.

Akbar, the Great, 63.

Alexander invades India, 48.

Aligarh Institutions of Islam, 118,
119; characterized, 198, 199.

American Baptist Missionary Union,
174; success in Telugu field, 225.

American Board of Foreign Mis-
sions, 174, 175; deputation's re-
port, 278.

American pioneers, 173-175.

America's responsibility to India^
282.

Amherst, Lord, 72.

Amritsar, holy city of Sikhs, 113.

Amritsar Medical Mission HospitaL
205-207.

Amusements of Hindus, 106.

Anamalal Hill Tribes, 82.

Ancestor worship in early times,
44, 45, 125, 126.

Andaman Islanders, 82.

Animal pests, 14.

Animal- worship : see ZoSlatry.

Anti-Christian education, 197-199;
at Lahore, 239.

Antiquity of India, 3.

Appeal of Madras Conference for re-
inforcements, 282-284.

Arabs bring to Europe Indian
knowledge, 4.

Aranyakas, 39.

Architecture of Buddhist Period, 55.

Artisans of village, 103.

Arya SamaJ, 199, 238, 239.

Aryan language, 24, 25.

Aryans, early: first entry into In-
dia, 24; their original home, 24;
language heirlooms from, 24, 25;
Aryan invasion, 25; daily life of
26, 27: death among Aryans, 27,
28; their religion, 28-33.

Asoka, a famous Buddhist king, 51;
his edicts, 51, 52; bis council, 53.

Astrologer of village, 102.

Asvins, interpretation of, 30.

Atharva Veda, 38.

Augustan Age of India, 57.

Baber, a Mohammedan ruler, 62.

Bactrian influences, 49.

Baker-ganj cyclone, 18.

Bands: composed of missionaries,
185; of natives, 186, 187; culti-
vate near neighborhood, 235.

Banerjea, Krishna Mohan, 260.

Baptism, problems connected with,
223, 224.

Baptist Missionary Society: its
pioneers, 168-173.

Barbers of India, 103.

Bauboo, Mrs. Tabitha, 263.

Bazaar preaching, 183.

Benares, Hinduism's sacred city,
132.

Bentlnck, Lord William, 72.

Bethune Girls' College, 263.

Bhagavad Gita, 60.

Bharat, Bharata: foot-note, 1; Im-
portant actors in Mahabharata, 34.

Bible translation in India, 257.

Bibliolatry of Sikhs, 113, 114.

Bird's-eye view of India, 4, 5.

Bishop, Mrs., testimony concern-
ing Zenana life, 93.

Black and White Jews, 111.

Blacksmith, village, 103.

Blavatsky, Madame, 141, 240.

Bogue's answer to critics of mis-
sions, 270, 271.

Books published in India, 86.

Bose, Miss Chandra Mukhi, 263.

Bose, Ram Chandra, 260, 261.

Bose, Eev., M. N., 264.

Brahma and Brahmfi, 128; central
In Pantheism, 138.

Brahma Samaj, 139, 140.

Brahman, or eternal essence, 58.

Brahman as village priest. 101,
102; in earliest times, 36. 37; re-
garded as divine, 124, 125; supe-
rior to the gods, 138; character
of, 138, 139.

301

302

INDEX

BrahmanaB, 38, 39.

Brainerd, David, Inspires Indian
■workers, 173.

British in India: early EngUsb at-
tempts, 69; British East India
Company, 69-72; expansion since
1857, 72, 73; native view of Brit-
ish rule, 73, 74.

British rule: see Government.

Brown, David, 166, 167.

Buchanan, Claudius, 166, 167.

Buddha: important dates In his life,
45 ; his various appellations, 45,
foot-note; his dally work, 46.

Buddhism : its founder, 45, 46 ; a
development of Hinduism, 46; its
tenets. 46, 47; secret of its suc-
cess, 47, 48; Asoka's services to,
51; King Kanlshka's services to,
52; four Buddhist councils, 52,
53; its missions, 53, 54; its civil-
ization, 55; its passing, 56, 57;
its legacy, 57 ; present location,
110; affected by Hinduism, 114;
character in Burma, 114, 115; pa-
goda building, 115; monasteries
and monks, 115, 116; defects, 116.

Buddhist ascendency, period of, 48-
55.

Burma: Lower, 11; Upper, 12.

Burmese women, 95.

Calcutta described, 87-89; meaning
of name, 130.

Carey, William, 169, 170, 273.

Caste: early origin of, 35-37; its
degeneracy, 96; ratlonnle of, 96,
97; essential features, 97; advan-
tages of, 97, 98; its evils, 98;
relstion to missions, 99, 100; as
a trade guild and assurance so-
ciety, 106; effect on individual
religious views, 137; Dr. Wilson's
view of, 267; problems in the
Church, 220-222.

Catholicism in India : pioneers In
India, 153, 154; Xavier, 154; Mal-
abar Rites, 154, 155 ; priests at
work, 155, 156; its converts, 156.
157 ; differences bet\Yeen it and
Protestantism, 1 57, 1 5S ; prespnt
strength. 158. 159; defects, 159.

Cats worshiped by women, 124.

Census of India: aa to population
and its distribution, 75, 76; as to
foreigners in India, 77; vital sta-
tistics, 78; different Indian races,
78; religions, 109; Islam's growth,
121; Catholicism. 158; Protes-
tants, 179; native religions and
Christianity, 251.

Chambers, William, 167.

Chandra Gupta, first king of In-
dia, 50.

Chandra, Professor Ram, 261.

Cbnnlfilr=; nf E;;st India Company,
166, 167.

Children : girls not desired, 91 ;

characteristics of, 95, 96.
Chinese Bible of Marshman and

Lassar, 171.
Chinese travelers to India, 56.
Christ: place of, in Indian thought,
267-269; eulogized by Chandar
Sen, 272.
Christian Endeavor, United Society

of, 177; value to Church, 214.
Christians as distributed locally;

255.
Christians, native: see Native

Church.
Christianity and other religions In

India. 251, 252.
Christianity in India: see ch. v.
Chuckerbutty's Orphanages, Miss,

263
Chxu-ch building in village de-
scribed, 216.
Church farm, 232, 233.
Church Missionary Society: influ-
ence on Syrian Church, 152; an
heir of Danish-Halle mission, 165;
a pioneer in India. 176.
Church of Scotland Women's Asso-
ciation, 177.
Church: see Native Church.
Clvillzatinn. Buddhist. 55.
Climate of India: temperature, 15;
rainfall, 15; bursting of the mon-
soon. 15-17 ; seasons, 17, IS ; cy-
clones, 18; drought, 18; faml'-es,
19; famine accompaniments, 19.
Clive, Robert. 70.
Colleges and higher education, 196-

201.
Colportage, 209.
Columbus and India. 2.
Commandments, Buddhism's, 47.
Common life in India. 87-106.
" Comnnr.nd System." 220.
Continental Europe's contact with
India, 65-69; causes of its f.-'il-
nre, 68, 69. [259.

Contributions of Christian converts,
Converts: quality of Catholic, 156.
157, 159; problems connected
with new, 222-224; need of em-
ployment. 227; notable, 2G0 2G3.
Cnnlies, 103.
Cooperative Credit Associations of

Government, 229.
Cornwallis, Charles, 71.
Corrle, Daniel, 167.
Cnrvlno. John of Monte. 153.
Councils, four Buddhist. 52. 53.
Cow especially sacred. 124.
Credit Associations, 229.
Creed of Hinduism, short, 138.
Crisis in India, 284.
Criticism of missions: see objec-
tions to Indian missions.
Critif's of missions characterized,
271, 272.

INDEX

303

Cross, power of, In India, 268.

Cyclones, 18.

Dalhousle, Lord, 72.

Danes In India, 67.

Danish-Halle mission: its pioneers,
161-163; Schwartz, 163, 164; de-
fects of mission, 164, 165.

Dawn and Nl^ht as deities, 30.

Dayanand SarasTatl, 23S, 239.

Death In Aryan times, 27.

Deccan, 6-8.

Deified men, 128, 127.

Deities, classification of Vedlc,
28-32.

Demonolatry, 127.

Density of population, 76.

Dharma Sutras, 44.

Dldaskaleion at Alexandria, 149,
150.

Diseases most prevalent, 78.

Distribution of Indian races, 76.

Dravidlans, 23; religion of, 23.

Drought, 18.

Duff's Tiew of education, 196, 197,
273.

Dumas and Duplelx and Indian Em-
pire, 67.

Durga, a name of Kali, 129.

Dutch In India, 66, 67.

Dutch Protestant missions, 160, 161.

Early Inhabitants of India, 21-24.

Earth, a deity, 29.

Bast India Company, British, 69-72;
forerunner of missions, 166; it3
chaplains, 166, 167; Its Christian
representatives, 167; its legisla-
tion, 168.

Eclectic Hinduism, 139-141.

Economic problems of Indian
Church: need of employment, 227,
228; peasant settlements. 228-
229; credit associations, 229.

Eddy, G. S., describes native band
worlJ, 186, 187.

Edicts of Asoka, Buddhist, 51. 52.

Education in India, 196; anti-Chris-
tian, 197-199.

Educational problems: see educa-
tional work.

Educational work: the Marsh-
man's, 171, 172; first schools for
Hindu girls, 171, 172; first char-
tered missionary college, 172; ver-
nacular schools, 194-196; higher
education, 196-198; for women,
199, 200; trained educators need-
ed, 200, 201; industrial educa-
tion, 201; problems connected
with, 236-238; comparisons, 252,
253; graduates in mission serv-
ice, 258.

Educators, need for trained, 200,

201.
■' Ekam eva adv^tiyam," Hinduism's
short creed. 138.

Emigration, 77.

English in education, use of, 196.

English language in India, 85, 88.

Epic period of Indian History, 34-
41.

Epworth League, 214.

Eras, Indian, 49.

European residences in India, SS.

Evangelistic work: preaching in
mission halls, 182; in bazaars,
183; itineration, 183, 184; its dif-
ficulties, 184, 185; by bands of
missionaries, 185; by native
bands, 186, 187; stereopticon ad-
dresses, 1S7, 188; work in homes,
188; Madras resolutions concern-
ing, 188, 189; In lowly homes,
190-193; remarkable movement In
Burma. 264, 265; importance of
279, 280.

Evangelization of India in this gen-
eration, 280, 281.

Evolution and Indian religions, 218,
219.

Extension of native Church, 235.

Fa Hsien, early Chinese pilgrim, 58.

Family: in Aryan times, 26, 27;
system, described, 90, 91.

Famines: ravages of, 19; accom-
paniments of, 19.

Farmers of India, 103-105.

Fauna of India, 13, 14.

** First in Arts " degree, 258.

Foreigners in India, 77.

Forests, 13.

Four great regions of India, 6-12.

Frederick IV. of Denmark, 161, 163.

French in India, 67.

" Gains of Learning Bill," 90, 91.

Gama, Vasco da, reaches India, 65.

Ganesa, 129.

Ganga, Mother, poetical name of
the Ganges, 14.

Ganges: deposits brought down by,
14; adored, 122.

Georglc, earliest Aryan, 28.

Germans in India, 68.

Gericke, 163.

Gersoppa, Falls of, 8.

Ghats, Eastern and Western, 7.

Goddesses, 129, 130.

Gods, need for many, 137.

Gopalgange Mission, 263, 264.

Gopls, or female cowherds, 128.

Goreh, Miss, 263.

Goreh, Rev. Nehemiah, 263.

Government of India: In provinces
and native states. 106, 107; evils
of British control, 107, 108; pro-
vides for religious needs of offi-
cials, 179, ISO; its estimate of
the value of missions, 181; atti-
tude toward missionary education,
236, 237; attitude toward Indian
religions, 242; bad example of
officials. 242; helpfulness to mis-
sions, 242, 243.

304

INDEX

Grant, Charles, 165, 166, 167, 174.

Granths, the two, of the Sikhs, 113.

" Great Principles " of Serampore
missionaries, 172, 173.

Greek invasion, 48, 49,

Grihya Sutras, 44.

GrUndler, 161, 162.

Guru, 134.

Hall, Gordon, 174.

Harnam Singh Ahluwalla, 261;
commends missionaries, 273.

Harrison, ei-President, 263.

Harvest festival, 230-232.

Hastings, Marquis of, 71, 72.

Hastings, Warren, 70, 71.

Headman of village, 101.

Heaven, a deity, 29.

Hell, Hindu ideas of. 125, 126.

Uenotheism of Vedic times, 33.

High places of Hinduism, 132.

Himalayan region, 6; described, 10;
value to India, 11.

Hindi, 85.

Hindu college at Benares, 141.

Hinduism : its preamble, 57, 58 ;
location, 110; its objects of wor-
ship, 122-131 ; Its shrines and
temples, 131, 132; its high places,
132; its temple worship, 132-134;
in the home, 134, 135; its leading
Ideas, 135-139; eclectic schools of,
139-141; Its Occidental missions,
141-144; its defects, 144, 145.

Hindustan, meaning, 1.

Hindustani, 85.

History: character of Indian, 20,
21; periods of Hindu- Vedic Age,
2000 to 1400 B. C, 24-33; Epic
Period, 1400-1000 B. C, 34-41;
period of expansion, 1000-320 B.
C, 41-48; Buddhist Period, 320
B. C. to 400 A. D., 48-55; Pu-
ranic Period, 500-1000 A. D., 65-
61; Mohammedan Period, 1001-
1761 A. D., 61-69; British Period,
1600-, 69-74.

Holy men of India, 146.

Home Missionary Societies, 235.

Homes: of wealthy Indians, 88, 89;
of Calcutta's poor, 89; furnishing
of village, 90; religion in, 134,
135; missionary visitation of, 188,
190-193.

Hostels important. 238.

Hsflan, Chinese Buddhist traveler,
56.

Hymns of Indian converts: Krishna
Chandra Pal's, 169; Miss Goreh's,
263.

Ideal man, according to early Hlnda
literature, 41.

Ideals of Christianity, 267.

Imnd-ud-din, Rev., 261.

India: names of, 1, 2; territory in-
cluded undor the name in early
and recent times, 2; areas, 4, 5;

scenery, 5; missionary crisis in,
284. For main items consult
Table of Contents.

India Sunday-school Union, 177.

Indian law affected by missions,
265, 266.

Indian National Congress, 267.

Indra : connected with the name
India, 1; an important god, 30,
31; hymn to, 31.

Industrial conditions In India, 105,
103.

Industrial education, 201.

Ingersoll in vernacular literature,
87.

Inquisition persecutes Nestorians,
151.

Intellectual expansion in India,
1000-320 B. C, 41-43.

Irrigation canals, 18.

Islam: see Mohammedanism.

Islam, the New, 239, 240.

Itinerating, 183-188.

Jains : rise and character, 54 ; lo-
cation of, 110; description of, 112;
temples of, 112.

Jordanus, 153, 154.

Judaism: provincial distribution of
Jews, 109; early arrival in India,
110, 111; Black and White Jews,
111.

Judaon, Adonlram, 173, 174.

Juggernaut, or Jagannath, 132.

Kali, the *' black " goddess, 129,
130.

Kanishka, a Scythian king, 49;
summons a Buddhist Council, 52,
53.

Kaplla, founder of Synthesis Phi-
losophy, 43.

Karma, doctrine of, 4S, 48.

Keshab Chander Sen: changes Lord's
prayer, 92; founds Brahma Samaj,
140, 141; address on Jesus, 268,
269; commends missions, 272.

Keskar's Orphanage and Industrial
Mission, 264.

Klernander, 163, 165.

Kolarians, 23.

Kola, worship of spirits, 23.

Eo San-ye Movement la Burma ,
264. 265.

Ko Thah-byu, 260.

Krishna Chandra Pal, Carey's first
convert, 169, 260.

Krishna, the " dark god," 128, 129.

Kshattriyas In earliest times, 36.

Kurus: see Bharatas.

Lakshmi, goddess of fortune, 129.

Languages of India: statistics, 84,
especially foot-note; how far a
single language Is understood, 84;
Sanskrit, 84, 85; Hindi and Hin-
dustani, 85; English, 85, 86.

Leaders of Indian Church. 215.

Lea£-wearci'3 of Orlssa, 82, 83.

INDEX

30s

Legislation of East India Company,
168.

Lelp3lc Missionary Society, 165.

Literary work: its importance, 207,
208; principles nnderlying, 208,
209; colportage, 209; its product^
257.

Literature : Aryan sacred, Vedas,
38; Brahmanas, 38, 39; Aranya-
kas and Upanishads, 39, 40; of
India's Angustan Age, 57; of Pu-
ranie Period, 68-60; yernacular,
amount published and varieties,
86; need of better, 86; Infidelity
and the vernaculars, 87; mission-
ary publications available, 257.

London Missionary Society a pio-
neer, 176.

Mackenzie, Sir A., scores critics of
missions, 271, 272.

Madras Christian College, 253.

Madras resolutions: concerning evan-
gelistic work, 188, 189; vernacu-
lar schools, 195 ; trained educa-
tors, 201 ; industrial education,
201; medical missions, 204; liter-
ature and colportage, 208, 209;
need of Christian life in native
Church, 211; caste, 220; female
baptism, 224; peasant settle-
ments, 228; methods of giving,
230; wide evangelization, 279, 280;
appeal for reinforcements, 282-
284.

Mahabharata, India's epic, de-
scribed, 34, 35.

Mahdi, or twelfth Imam, 118.

Makers of British India, 70-72.

Malabar Rites. 154, 155.

Manu, Laws of, 55, 60.

Maratba Confederacy, 64.

Marriage: in Aryan times, 27;
early, 93, 94.

Marshman. Joshua, 171, 172, 273.

Martyn, Henry, 167; despaired of
seeing a true Hindu convert, 259.

Maruts or " Gleaming Ones," 31.

Mass movements : in Tinnevelly,
224, 225; Telugu field, 225; In
North India, 225; resulting prob-
lems, 225-227.

Meals of the poor, 104.

Mediatorshlp In Hinduism, 138.

Medical missions: pioneer in India,
168, 169; field and need, 202,
203 ; force engaged, 203 ; aims,
203, 204; work for women, 204,
205; a woman's case, 205, 206.

Medicine In Buddhist times, 55.

Megastheiles* account of India in
P,00 B. C, 50, 51.

Mental capacity of Hindus, 80, 81.

Jfetbods of work: see cb. vi.; also
under Index ''Educational work,"
** Evangelistic work," ** Literary
worlt,"- "Medical missions,"

" Native Church,'* " Woman's
work."

Mid-air deities, 30, 31.

Minerals, metals, gems, 13.

Mirza Chulam Ahmad, 240.

Missionaries: early Buddhist, 54;
relations to Occidentals, 244; spir-
itual contact with, 244, 245; rela-
tions to one another, 245, 246; re-
lation to native force, 246, 247;
inner life of, 247.

Missions essential to England's na-
tional life. 281.

Missions of Buddhism, 53, 54.

Mohammedan rule: period of, 61-65;
character of, 61, 62; its rulers,
62; influence of Moslem rule, 64,
65.

Mohammedanism: location, 110; nu-
merical strength of, 116; general
character, 64, 117; sects, 117, 118;
modern school of, 118; its Allgarh
institutions, 118, 119; its defects,
120; relation to idolatry, 120, 121;
its numerical growth, 121; its
educational propaganda, 239; mis-
sion work, 239, 240.

Monasteries of Burman Buddhists,
115, 116.

Monkey especially sacred, 124.

Monks In Burma, 115.

Monotheism vs. idolatry, 120, 121.

Monsoon, bursting of, 15, 16.

Motto of Ziegenbalg, 163.

Mutazilites, 118.

Mutiny, Sepoy, 72, 274.

Mysore forest described, 7, 8.

Nalanda and its University, 56,

Names: of India and their signifi-
cance, 1, 2; of Indian rivers, 8.

Narbada, a sacred river, 122.

Nat worship In Burma, 127, 128.

National characteristics of Indians,
81, 82.

Native agency, 257, 258.

Native bands for evangelistic ef-
fort, 186.

Native Church: membership, 210;
character of members, 210, 211;
preaching for, 212, 213; Sunday-
schools In, 213, 214; societies In,
214; leaders of, 215; evolution
of, 215-217 ; character of, 258,
259; contributions of, 259; na-
tive leaders of, 260, 261. [247.

Native force and missionaries, 246,

Native opposition to missionary edu-
cation, 236, 237.

Naturi, or Mohammedan Rational-
ists, 239.

*' Nazarene New Sect " of Moham-
medans, 240.

Neo-Hlndulsm. 210, 241.

Nestorians: see Syrian Church.

New Dispensatlnn Church, 140, 141,

Noble, Miss, 240.

3o6

INDEX

Northbrook. former Vlceror, testi-
fies for missions, 274, 275.

Northern Italy and the Indo-Gan-
getic plain, 9.

North India, mass movements in,
225.

Objections to Indian missions, 218-
220; criticism of Steevens, 2B9;
of Meredith Townsend, 269, 270;
other criticisms, 270. 271; critics
characterized, 271, 272.

Occidentals, relations of missiona-
ries to, 244.

Occupations of Hindus, 100.

Olcott, Colonel, 141, 240.

Opportunity in India, 276-284.

Orissa, leaf-wearers of, 82, 83.

Pagoda building, 115.

Panchalas or " Five Tribes," promi-
nent in Mahabharata, 34, 35.

Panchayet important In govern-
ment, 107; in church work, 234,
2.35.

Pantaenus in India, 149, 150.

Pantheism, 137, 138.

Parsees, location of, 109; described,
111.

Peasant settlements, 228, 229.

Periodicals in India, 86; for Chris-
tians, 207, 208; of Neo-Hinduism,
241.

Philosophy and its six schools, 43.

Physical factors favoring missions,

276, 277.

Physical relations of Indian re-
gions, 6-11.

Physical qualities of Hindus, 79,
80.

Pilgrimages. 145, 146.

Pistorio, Nicholas de, 1B3.

Plants possessed by missions, 256.

Plants worshipped, 123, 124.

Pliitschau, 161, 162.

Political aids to missionary effort,

277, 278.

Polygamy in the Church, 222.
Portuguese rule in India, 65, 66.
Poverty of the masses, 105, 106.
Prayer: for forgiveness, 29, 30; to

the Ganges, 122.
Preaching: to native Church, 212;

illustration, 212, 213; Ko Thah-

byu, Karen apostle, sermon of,

212, 213. See " Evangelistio

work."
Priest, Brahman: see Brahman.
Priests at work. Catholic, 155, 156.
Printing in India, 86.
Printing in missions, in India, 86;
William Ward's work, 172.
Probation, length of, a problem,

222, 223.
Pr^hlemR of Indian missions: see

ch. vii.
Progress of forty years of missions,

253, 254.

Protestant statistics, 1901, 179;
1890-1900, 250, 251. See Appen-
dixes B. and C.

Prussia In India, 68.

Ptolemy's view of India, 2.

Public spirit largely lacking In In-
dia, 82.

Puranas: rejected by Rammohun
Roy, 39; " Ancient Lore," 58,
59.

Puranic period, 55-61.

Pushan, a god, 28, 29.

Races of India: facta from census
of 1901, 75-77; foreigners in In-
dia, 77; emigration, 77; race divi-
sions, 78; physical qualities of
races, 79; mental caliber, 80; na-
tional characteristics, 81, 82;
wild tribes, 82, 83; differences
between them and Hindus, 83, 84.

Rainfall, 15.

Rama, hero of Ramayana, 35.

Ramabai, Pundita, 263, 264.

Ramayana, great Indian epic, 35.

Rammohun Roy, 139, 140.

Recruits needed: number of, 282,
283; kind desired, 283.

Reddis, or southern farmers, 104.

Reformed Church in America, 175.

Reforms aided by missionaries, 268,
267.

Religion: aboriginal, 23, 24; •ycdic,
28-33; In Epic Age, 37-41; in ne-
riod of expansion, 43-45; statis-
tics of, 251, 252; statistics to-
day, 109 ; distribution of religions,
109, 110.

Religious need of India, 278, 279.

Resources of India: agricultural
and horticultural, 12; forest, 13;
minerals, metals, gems, 13;
fauna, 13, 14; rivers, 14, 15.

Rig Veda, 25; quotations from, 26,
27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33.

River plains, 8-10.

Rivers a resource, 14, 15.

Romanism: see Catholicism.

Rudra, or Thunder, 31.

Saiyid Ahmad, 118.

Saka Bra, 49.

Saktas, worshipers of the Sakti,
ISO.

Saktlsm: see Saktas.

Salary of native pastors, 233, 234.

Sama Veda, 38.

Samvat Era, 49.

Sankara, India's St. Augustine,
59, 60.

Sanskrit in vernacular languages,
84, 85.

Sarah Tucker College for women,
200.

Sarasvati, goddess of learning, 129.

S:ittlilanadhans, the two Mrs., 262,
263.

Savltar, the enlivener, 28.

INDEX

307

Scenery: of India, 6; of river
plains, 8, 9; of Himalayan re-
gion, 10; of Upper Burma, 12.

Schlegel's opinion of Islam, 120.

Schoolmaster, 102.

Schools of Indian philosophy, 43.

Schultze, 163.

Schwartz, 163, 164.

Science In early Hindu literature,
40; occasion for Its rise, 40; In
period of Intellectual expansion,
42.

Scriptures, translation of, 167.

Scudder, John, 175.

Sculpture of Buddhist times, 55.

Scythian Invaders, 49, 50.

Seasons of India, 17, 18.

Secretary of State on missionary ef-
fort, 268.

Seleukos, Alexander's successor, 50.

Self-government of native Church:
desirable and possible, 233; pas-
tor's salary an obstacle to, 233,
234; training to govern, 233, 234;
panchayets, 234.

Self-supporting Church: difficulties,
229, 230; methods of securing,
230-233.

.Sepoy Mutiny, 72, 177, 178.

■Serampore pioneers, 168-173.

Serpent worshipers, 23.

Settlements, peasant, 228, 229.

Sheshadrl, Narayan, 261.

Shlahs, 117, 118.

Shrines and temoles of Hinduism,
131, 132.

Siiihs: location of, 110; their rise,
113; sacred city and Book, 113,
114; present status, 114.

Sin, sense of in Vedas, 29, 30.

Singh, Miss Llllvati, 263.

Sirhind Canal, 18.

Siva, 129.

Slta, flama's wife, 35.

Sky .deities, 28-30.

Snakes worshiped by women, 124.

Social Conference of 1894, 267.

Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 165, 176.

Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, 165, 176; a pioneer, 178.

Society: In Aryan times, 28, 27; In
Epic Period, 35-37; in 300 B. C,
60, 51.

Soma, or moon-plant, as a deity, 32.

" Sens of the Ganges," 122.

Sons, why desired, 126.

SorabJIs, converted Parsee family,
262; Mrs. Scrabji's High School,
263.

South Pacific peoples and India's
aborigines, 22, 23. [248.

Spiritual life of missionaries, 247,

Spiritual worship of Hinduism, 134.

Statistics of missionary effort,
249-255.

Steevens' criticism of missions, 269.

Stereoptlcon work, 187, 188.

Stones an object of worship, 123.

Sudras in earliest times, 37.

Sun God, 28.

Sunday-schools, 213, 214.

Sunnltes, 117.

Surya, the Sun God, 28.

Sutras, defined, 43, 44.

Swamls, 141, 142.

Sweden In India, 68.

Syrian Church: Persian origin of,
150, 151; extension through
Asia 150, 151; during Middle
Ages, 151; persecuted by Roman-
ists, 151; modern revival of, 152;
crosses of, 152; failure of, 152.
153; its practice with regard to
caste, 221.

Tagore, leader of Thelstlc Church
of India, 140.

Tamerlane, " Timur, the Lame,"
62, 63.

Tantras, the, 59.

Teachers, difficult to secure suita-
ble, 237, 238.

Telugu mass movements, 225.

Temperature of India, 15.

Temple worship, 132, 133.

Temples of Hinduism, 131, 132.

Terrestrial gods, 31, 32.

Theosophy, 141.

Thoburn, Isabella; founds first
woman's college, 199; value of
her work, 200.

Thomas, Dr., 168, 169.

Thomas, St.: apocryphal traditions
of, 147, 148; how explained, 148,
149.

Thomason, Thomas, 167.

Tibeto-Burman races, 23.

Tigers, man-eating, 14.

Tinnevelly, mass movements In,
224, 225.

Tools worshiped, 123.

Tools!: see Tulasl.

Townsend, Meredith, criticises mis-
sions, 269, 270. 275, 279.

Tract societies of India, 207.

Transmigration: basis of, 40; af-
fecting plant-worship, 123, 124;
number and character of trans-
migrations, 124, 136, 142; result
of belief in, 206.

TrimurtI, or Hindu Trinity, 123,
129.

Tulasl an object of worship, 124.

Twin Horsemen: see Asvlns.

tidny, George, 167.

United Free Church of Scotland and
education, 253.

United Presbyterians of North
America , 280, 281, 282.

Upanlshads: described, 39; teach
transmigration. 40; furnish pre-
amble of Hinduism, 57, 68,

3o8

INDEX

Urdu, or " camp '* language, 85.

Vaishnav sect, 67.

Vaisyas in earliest times, 36.

Vallabha sect, 125.

Valmiki, traditional author of
Ramayana, 35.

Varuna, 29.

Vata, the deity of, 30.

Vayu, a deity, 30.

Vedanta and Vedantism, 69, 60;
object of, 142.

Vedanta Sutras, 50.

Vedlc Age, 24-33.

Vernacular literature: see Litera-
ture.

Vernacular schools, 194-198.

Victoria proclaimed Empress of
India, 72, 73.

Village communities, rise of, 61.

Village, the Indian: a native's de-
scription of, 89, 90; in North
India, 215, 216; system, 61, 100,
101; its differing classes, 101-106;
importance of, 105 ; preaching
In, 186.

Vishnu: his incarnations, 128;
power of his name Hari, 135.

Vital statistics of India, 78.

Vivekananda at Chicago, 141; how
regarded in India, 143; estimate
of Western women, 143, 144.

Volunteer Movement for Home
Missions, 235.

Volunteers needed for India, 282-
284.

Vritra, a mid-air deity, 31.

Wages in India, 105; of Christian
Church members, 259.

Wahhabis, 118.

Ward, William, 172.

War horse, effect on aborigines, 25.

Water-worship, 122.

Weavers of India, 103.

Wellesley, Lord, 71.

Wells of Benares, sacred, 122, 123.

Wesleyan Missionary Society a
pioneer, 176.

Wheel, Law of the, 47.

Widowhood, child, 94.

Wild tribes, 82, 83.

Wind as a deity, 30.

Woman: in Vedlc times, 26, 27; in
Epic Period, 37; early life of, 91,
92; admired and honored, 92, 03;
hard life of, 93; marriage
and widowhood, 93, 94; common
lot of, 94, 95; in Burma, 95;
labors in the villages, 104; wor-
ship of tulasi plant, 124; In-
fluence over husband, 190; higher
education of, 199, 200.

Womanhood, a new Christian, 261-
tZ2; notable examples of, 262,
263.

Woman's work: Increase of, 189;
importance of, 189, 190; for low
castes, 190-193; in zenanas, 193;
teaching In homes, 193, 194;
medical work for, 204-206.

Women's Society for Christian Fe-
male Education, Berlin, 177.

World's Young Women's Christian
Association, 177, 214.

Worship: household, 105; in Hindu
temples, 132, 133; not congrega-
tional, 133, 134; spiritual, 134;
in the home, 134. 135.

Xavier, Francis, 154; care of souls,
247.

Yajnavalkya, Code of, 60.

Yajur Veda, Black and White, 38.

Yama: a terrestrial deity, 32; his
heaven, 32, 33; the ;journey to,
125, 126.

Yoga system, character of, 146.

Young Men's Christian Association,
177, 214; hostels of, 238.

Young Men's Hindu Association,
242.

Young, Sir W. M., eulogizes mis-
sions, 273, 274.

Zenana system : real evil of, 92;
Mrs. Bishop's testimony concern-
ing, 93; teaching in zenanas, 193.

Ziegenbalg, 161-163.

Zoolatry, 124.

Zoroastrianism : see Parsees.

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